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PERSUADING   GOD 
BACK  TO  HERRIN 

BY 

HAL  W.  TROVILLION 

EDITOR  OF  THE  HERRIN  NEWS 


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1UJN018  HIBTOIUCAJ*  SVJUVET 


PRESS  AND  PULPIT 

In  the  churches  there  are  some  ministers  and 
laymen  who  are  constantly  berating,  belittling 
and  in  some  extreme  cases  talking  about  a  decad- 
ent and  dangerous  press.  The  newspapers  in 
general  and  the  Chicago  papers  in  particular  are 
using  much  church  news  at  the  present  time  and 
they  are  willing  to  use  much  more  if  it  is  real 
news.  Some  church  news  can  be  made  so  in- 
teresting that  it  will  supplant  crime  news. 
Newspapers  welcome  co-operation  from  the  re- 
ligious organizations,  but  they  resent  dictation  or 
propaganda.  Less  criticism  and  more  co-opera- 
tion by  the  church  with  the  newspapers  evidently 
is  needed. 

—The  Rev.  John  T.  Brabner  Smith  of  the  world 
service  commission  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
church  in  a  recent  lecture  at  Garret  Biblical  in- 
stitute, Evanston,  Illinois. 


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BY  WAY  OF  FOREWORD 

It  is  well  for  the  country  to 
have  liberality  in  thought  and 
progress  in  action,  but  its 
greatest  asset  is  common  sense 
....  The  people  know  the  differ- 
ence between  pretense  and  re- 
ality. They  want  to  be  told  the 
truth. 

—President  Coolidge, 

Aug.  14,  1924. 


PERSUADING  GOD  BACK 
TO  HERRIN 


By 

HAL   W.   TROVILLION 


Being  a  True  Account  of  a 
Successful  and  Unusual  Ex- 
periment in  Journalism  Con- 
ducted by  The  Herrin  News 
by  Resorting  to  the  Old  Time 
Religion  to  Regenerate  a 
Community  that  Some 
Thought  God  Had  Forgotten. 


1925 

The  Herrin   News 

The  Coal   Belt's  Greatest  Newspaper 

Herrin,   Illinois 


"The  right  to  think.,  to 
know,  to  utter,"  as  John  Mil- 
ton says,  is  the  dearest  of  all 
liberties.  Without  this  right 
there  can  be  no  liberty  to  any 
people;  with  it,  there  can  be 
no  slavery.  When  you  have 
convinced  thinking  men  that 
it  is  right,  and  the  humane 
men  that  it  is  just,  you  will 
gain  your  cause,  M 
lose  half  of  what  is  gained 
by  violence.  What  is  gained 
by    argument    is    gained    for- 

Let  us  belief- 
whole  of  truth  can  never  do 
harm  to  the  whole  of  virtue. 
.  .  .  The  last  lesson  a  man 
ever  learns  is  that  libri 
thought  and  speech  is  the 
right  of  all  mankind;  that  the 
man  who  denies  every  article 
of  our  creed  is  to  be  allowed 
to  preach  just  as  often  and 
just  as  loud  as  we  ourse 

—Wendell  Phillips 

(1811-1884) 


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INTRODUCTION 

For  the  past  year  and  a  half  up  to  July, 
1925,  no  little  city  on  the  American  conti- 
nent has  been  so  much  in  the  international 
news  columns  as  Herrin,  up  until  the 
trouble  started,  one  of  the  country's  most 
prosperous  coal  mining  cities,  situated  in 
Williamson  county  in  the  south  end  of  Il- 
linois. What  manner  of  city  is  it,  what 
sort  of  people  inhabit  the  place  that  so  fre- 
quently disturbs  the  nation  with  its  out- 
landish deportment  are  natural  inquiries 
that  come  from  those  who  dwell  at  a  dis- 
tance. 

From  all  appearances  it  is  like  the  usual 
coal  mining1  and  industrial  city  here  in 
America.  It  has  its  share  of  churches, 
schools,  fraternal  organizations  and  so- 
cieties. It  has  a  hospital,  public  library, 
newspapers  and  every  other  convenience 
and  improvement  found  in  any  progres- 
sive Middle  West  city  of  12,000  people. 
But  to  the  average  mind,  Herrin  is  an 
enigma  of  our  present  day  culture.  The 
name  itself  is  a  very  unusual  one  for  a 
town  and  now  with  its  uniqueness  it  im- 
mediately connotes  mob  madness,  murder 
and  unaccountable  rash  action.  It  means 
nearly  everything  that  we  do  not  like  to 
claim  as  American,  and  while  there  is  a 
fairly  good  sized  foreign  colony  here,  con- 
sisting mostly  of  Lombardians  from  Nor- 
thern Italy,  a  sprinkle  of  miners  from 
Northern  England,  and  Southern  Wales, 
Lithuaneans  and  Polanders  and  a  very 
small  colony  of  Syrians,  who  are  engaged 
principally  as  small  tradesmen,  the  great 


Persuading   God    Back  To   Herrin 


mass  of  population  is  native  to  the  terri- 
tory and  may  be  characterized  as  pure 
Americans.  The  years  just  following  the 
world's  war  attracted  a  large  number  of 
idle  miners  from  the  Alabama'  and  the 
West  Kentucky  coal  fields  because  of  the 
steady  work  at  the  local  mines  up  until 
two  years  ago.  There  are  no  colored  peo- 
ple in  Herrin  and  very  few^  in  the  county. 

In  June,  1922,  one  of  the  most  terrible 
catastrophes  in  the  annals  of  American 
history  took  place  in  the  county  when 
twTenty-three  persons  were  killed,  or  as  the 
press  at  that  time  chose  to  characterize^  it, 
were  massacred  in  a  union  and  non-union 
clash.  Telegraphic  messages  bearing  the 
date  line  of  this  city  won  for  the  event 
the  unpleasant  title  of  the  "Herrin  Mas- 
sacre." The  entire  truth  of  the  trouble 
which  was  precipitated  by  the  efforts  of  a 
money-mad  mine  operator  to  displace 
union  labor  in  this  field  never  got  a  fair 
and  full  hearing  before  the  people  of  the 
nation  and  the  community  today  still 
stands  discredited  and  the  incident  has 
gone  down  in  history  with  the  indictment 
against  Herrin  because  of  an  insufficient 
understanding  of  the  conditions  that  led 
up  to  'and  precipitated  this  horrible  event. 

But  that  is  now  a  closed  incident.  We 
are  here  concerned  with  the  reign  of  ter- 
ror that  came  later  and  from  which  the 
community  is  just  now  emerging  and 
which  has  little  or  no  connection  with  the 
"massacre"  of  1922. 

We  might  characterize  the  year  of  1924 
and  the  first  part  of  1925  in  Williamson 
county   and  Herrin   wrhich  have  been   so 


Persuading  God   Back  To   Herrin  9 

much  before  the  world  for  their  unlawful 
deeds  and  crimes  after  the  fashion  that 
Carlyle  opened  his  essay  on  the  French 
Revolution  that  was  gripping  the  world's 
attention  over  a  century  ago : 

"A  huge  explosion  bursting  through  all 
formulas  and  customs;  confounding  into 
wreck  and  chaos  the  ordered  arrangement 
of  earthly  life ;  blotting  out,  one  may  say, 
the  very  firmament  and  skyey  loadstars, — 
though  only  for  a  season.  *****  To 
those  who  stood  present  in  the  actual 
midst  of  that  smoke  and  thunder,  the  ef- 
fect might  well  be  too  violent;  blinding 
and  deafening,  into  confused  exasperation, 
almost  into  madness.  These  onlookers 
have  played  their  part,  were  it  with  the 
printing-press  or  with  the  battle-cannon, 
and  are  departed;  their  work,  such  as  it 
was,  remaining  behind  them; — where  the 
French  Revolution  also  remains." 

Carlyle  stood  at  a  distance  of  half  a  cen- 
tury from  that  great  European  upheavel 
to  examine  into  the  causes  and  influences 
of  that  mighty  event.  The  heat  of  battles 
had  long  been  cooled,  but  there  mere  many 
that  sketched  the  ruins  while  the  guillotine 
was  still  dripping  red  and  had  it  not  been 
for  these  writers  the  historians  who  came 
along  absolutely  unbiased  later  on  could 
not  have  found  their  facts  out  of  which  to 
compile  a  true  and  accurate  story  of  the 
rebirth  of  civilized  Europe. 

It  is  the  mission  of  this  little  brochure 
to  tell  the  story  of  the  beginning  of  the 
end  of  one  of  the  most  tragic  events  in 
the  history  of  southern  Illinois — which  is 
the  oldest  portion  of  the  state  and  has  seen 


10  Persuading   God   Back  To   Herrin 

many  turbulent  periods.  The  ruins  left 
this  community  are  still  smoking  too  hot 

to  permit  their  accurate  and  fearless  hand- 
ling, for  undoubtedly  our  recent  occur- 
rences have  been  the  most  unusual  that 
organized  government  ever  experienced  in 
the  Middle  West  if  not  in  the  entire  United 
States.  It  may  not  all  be  over  yet — the 
volcano  may  not  only  send  up  smoke  from 
time  to  time  but  it  may  again  spout  de- 
struction and  death,  but  surely  not  if  this 
wasted  and  exhausted  community  heed 
the  last  resorted  to  remedy  presented  by 
the  Editor-Evangelist  Howard  S.  Wil- 
liams, the  little  man  from  Mississippi 
who  came  to  us  a  little  while  ago  bearing 
a  gospel  of  love  into  this  wilderness  of 
hate.  He  taught  that  God  was  love — not 
envy  nor  vengeance.  His  was  the  gospel 
of  peace  on  earth,  good  will  toward  all 
men.  This  same  man  departed  a  short 
time  ago  after  a  six  weeks  stay  with  most 
of  the  people  convinced  that  there  was  a 
God  still  in  the  heavens — that  He  was  the 
father  to  all  mankind — that  there  was 
such  a  thing  still  in  the  world  as  the 
brotherhood  of  man,  just  as  the  lodges 
and  other  societies  teach  and  try  to  prac- 
tice, but  which  the  churches  in  this  city 
had  seldom  mentioned  here  during  all  the 
reign  of  terror. 

Just  sixteen  months  before  Williams  ar- 
rived there  had  come  into  this  community 
another  man  at  the  paid  services  of  an  or- 
ganization that  was  backed  almost  one 
hundred  percent  by  the  Protestant  preach- 
ers of  Williamson  county.  This  new- 
comer sought  to  cure  the  ills  of  our  society 


Persuading   God   Back  To   Herrin  11 

with  powder  and  lead.  During  his  reign 
which  was  virtually  supreme,  all  laws  and 
court  orders  and  even  the  commands  of 
the  militia,  which  his  actions  necessitated 
calling  here  at  a  cost  to  the  state  of  nearly 
half  a  million  dollars,  were  inoperative  by 
his  command.  And  during  this  period  the 
toll  of  life  claimed  ran  up  to  thirteen, 
throwing  upon  the  mercies  of  the  com- 
munity ten  widows  and  twenty-eight  or- 
phans. Only  the  death  of  the  newcomer 
on  the  night  of  January  24th  last  in  a  duel 
with  Deputy  Sheriff  Ora  Thomas  brought 
to  a  close  the  bloodiest  conflict  that  any 
city  in  America  ever  experienced  at  a  time 
when  the  nation  wTas  at  peace. 

It  was  pretty  well  agreed  by  all  and 
even  admitted  by  those  who  had  lost  their 
heads  for  a  time  in  the  excitement,  that 
the  community  was  moving  fast  and  sure 
toward  fatal  disaster  and  complete  de- 
struction unless  this  mob  madness  was 
checked.  As  Lincoln  characterized  the 
nation  when  the  slavery  issue  threatened 
it,  this  city  could  not  stand  divided  against 
itself.  We  all  saw  it  clearly  day  by  day 
as  time  seemed  to  bring  no  improvement 
nor  hold  out  any  hope  for  betterment. 

There  was  one  thing  that  was  outstand- 
ing and  to  which  the  whole  of  civilization 
pointed  its  finger  of  scorn.  This  was  that 
the  movement  that  refused  to  recognize 
duly  constituted  authority  was  backed  by 
the  church.  In  fact  the  lawless  movement 
to  enforce  some  of  the  laws  had  com- 
mandered  the  church  and  what  a  formid- 
able force  when  the  pulpit  gets  behind  a 
social  crusade,  when  God-fearing,  church- 


12  Persuading   God   Back  To   Herrin 


going,  faith-abiding  people  become  so 
worked  up  to  look  upon  any  means  as 
justifying  the  end  sought!  This  was  the 
limit  to  which  Herrin's  troubles  had  come. 

How  to  bring  the  community  back  to 
itself  was  our  immediate  problem.  The 
job  had  to  be  done  by  some  one  from  the 
outside,  for  no  man  trusted  his  neighbor. 
One  had  to  be  one  hundred  percent  their 
way.  So  the  Moses  that  was  to  lead  us 
out  had  to  be  one  whose  hands  were  not 
soiled  by  contact  with  either  side  and  he 
had  to  be  as  much  of  a  lion  tamer  as  Old 
Daniel  himself.  It  looked  like  a  job  for  a 
martyr,  but  somewhere  there  was  a  man 
and  the  will  to  find  him  showed  the  way. 

Howard  S.  Williams,  a  former  newspa- 
per owner  and  publisher  at  Hattiesburg, 
Miss.,  was  soon  discovered  at  Cairo,  the 
most  southern  city  in  Illinois,  conducting 
a  series  of  successful  evangelistic  meet- 
ings after  the  fashion  of  Gypsy  Smith,  Jr., 
who  some  two  years  before  had  converted 
Williams.  This  young  editor  had  sold  his 
publishing  plant,  taken  the  money  and  in- 
vested in  a  big  gospel  tent  and  was  saving 
the  lost  souls  in  the  old  river  town  of 
Cairo. 

Rev.  John  Meeker,  pastor  of  the  Presby- 
terian church  in  Herrin,  the  only  Pro- 
testant minister  who  was  not  in  sympathy 
with  the  methods  that  had  been  used  in 
the  so-called  clean  up  movement,  visited 
Cairo  and  sought  from  Williams  the  terms 
upon  which  he  could  be  persuaded  to  Her- 
rin. He  was  told  that  if  the  other  preach- 
ers and  their  congregations  would  co- 
operate that  he  would  pitch  tent  here  and 


Persuading  God   Back  To   Herrin  13 


start  on  the  problem  of  regenerating  a  lost- 
community.  Of  this  Rev.  Meeker  assured 
him  and  returned  to  Herrin  as  happy  as 
if  he  had  at  last  found  the  Holy  Grail. 
But  a  conference  with  his  associate 
preachers  turned  him  away  a  very  sad  and 
disappointed  man.  For  if  not  stated  in  so 
many  words,  it  was  tacitly  understood  that 
at  this  conjuncture  of  the  so-called  clean- 
up movement  in  Williamson  county,  a  man 
like  Howard  S.  Williams  was  persona  no  a 
grata.  It  was  known  that  he  preached 
the  old  time  religion — not  narrow  doctrine 
— that  his  mission  was  to  turn  the  trans- 
gressor back  to  the  path  of  righteousness 
— that  what  church  the  saved  soul  should 
unite  with  to  hold  him  to  the  straight  and 
narrow  was  a  matter  with  him  and  his 
God.  This  broad  and  charitable  view  of 
religion  apparently  is  what  displeased  the 
other  preachers  and  for  some  time  it  look- 
ed blue  indeed  for  the  kingdom  of  God  in 
Williamson  county. 

Then  it  was  that  The  Herrin  News  cut 
in.  Like  Williams,  this  paper  had  been 
during  all  the  reign  of  terror  much  un- 
welcome because  it  dared  to  tell,  as  long 
as  it  was  safe  to  do  so,  the  many  atrocities 
that  had  been  committed  in  the  so-called 
clean-up  movement  headed  by  S.  Glenn 
Young  and  backed  by  the  preachers  who 
prayed  more  power  to  his  trusty  guns  and 
his  armed  guards  that  accompanied  him 
on  his  destructive  raids.  But  now  Young 
had  finally  met  his  man  and  had  been  laid 
to  rest  by  the  long  prayers  and  flowery 
eulogies  of  the  very  preachers  who  were 
now  opposing  Williams'  advent  with  the 


14  Persuading  God   Back  To   Herrin 

old-time  religion.  Young  could  no  more 
come  to  The  Herrin  News  office,  as  he  did 
upon  several  occasions  during  his  reign  in 
Herrin,  and  give  orders  as  to  what  should 
go  in  the  paper.  The  workmen  in  the 
mechanical  department  of  the  plant  no 
longer  worked  in  fear  of  being  beat  up  by 
him  and  his  gang  as  happened  one  after- 
noon when  the  gang  rushed  in  on  the  force 
at  work  and  beat  up  a  linotype  operator 
whom  none  of  them  had  ever  seen  before 
and  threatened  another  operator  if  he  ever 
again  dared  put  Young's  name  up  in  type. 
But  Young  had  now  passed  and  no  one  had 
any  fears  that  his  ghost  would  appear  and 
cause  any  further  trouble.  The  liberties 
of  the  press  had  been  restored  all  through- 
out the  county  with  the  passing  of  Young. 
The  Herrin  News  felt  free  now  to  act  to 
restore  the  community  to  civilization  from 
which  it  had  been  so  long  ostracised,  so 
the  much  quoted  open  letter  was  sent  to 
Williams  by  The  News  inviting  him  to 
come  to  Herrin  despite  the  opposition  that 
had  developed  in  the  very  institutions 
where  the  welcome  should  have  rung  loud- 
est, and  the  letter  impressing  upon  him  to 
bring  along  a  real,  honest-to-God  Bible 
that  had  all  the  pages  in  it. 

So  Williams  came.  He  brought  the 
same  old  Bible  that  we  used  to  hear 
preached  from.  And  this  is  what  all  of 
this  is  about.  The  purpose  of  writing  this 
little  booklet  at  this  time  is  to  show  how 
dependent  the  whole  fabric  of  government 
is  upon  the  practice  of  true  Christian  civi- 
lization and  how  infirm  a  foundation  is 
left  for  duly  constituted  government  once 


Persuading  God    Back  To    Herrin  15 

the  true  principles  of  the  right  guided 
church  are  withdrawn.  Had  the  churches 
in  this  county  not  have  been  exploited  by 
a  spurious  doctrine,  the  law  would  have 
stood  up  under  the  severest  tests  it  was 
put  to  all  throughout  our  troublesome 
times.  But  instead  of  standing  up  and 
teaching  its  true  principles,  it  bent  and 
finally  yielded  to  the  onslaught  of  the  mis- 
guided and  fell  not  only  a  captive  to  the 
will  of  the  surging  multitude,  but  became 
a  mighty  barrier  behind  which  many  hid 
to  excuse  their  rioting  and  wrong-doings. 
If  there  is  anything  anywhere  in  Ameri- 
can history  since  we  have  had  a  nation 
that  offers  a  parallel  to  our  experience, 
history  to  the  present  day  is  indeed  quite 
silent  in  the  matter. 

Hal  W.  Trovillion. 
Herrin,  111.,  July  25,  1925. 


THE  HEREIN  NEWS  CALLS  FOR  AN 
EVANGELIST 

(The  open-letter  invitation  sent  to  Williams  to  come  to  the  lid 
of  suffering  Herrin  was  heralded  everywhere  in  the  press  at  the  tune 
of  hs  issuance  as  a  S.  0.  S.  call.  No  letter  obtained  as  wide  broad- 
casting  by  the  press  as  that  given  the  following.) 

The  Herrin  News  Office 

Herrin,  111.,  May  9,  1925. 

Mr.  Howard  S.  Williams, 

Layman-Evangelist, 

Metropolis,  Illinois. 

Dear  Mr.  Williams :— Upon  my  return 
to  Herrin  yesterday,  I  was  told  that  you 
called  at  The  News  Office  office  early  in 
the  week  to  see  me.  I  regret  that  I  was 
out  of  the  city,  for  ever  since  our  mutual 
friend  Judge  Dewey  of  Cairo  called  at  my 
office  in  Springfield  a  few  weeks  ago  and 
told  me  so  many  worthy  things  about  you 
and  insisted  that  you  were  the  very  man 
of  the  hour  for  Herrin's  present  needs,  I 
have  looked  forward  with  no  little  pleas- 
ure to  meeting  you  and  tell  you  what  a 
harvest  awaits  you  in  this  community 
which  a  lot  of  people  from  away  think 
that  God  has  forgotten  or  deserted  alto- 
gether. Sometimes  I  am  nearly  persuad- 
ed to  believe  that  there  is  a  bit  of  truth  in 
it. 

In  the  twenty  years  that  I  have  publish- 
ed  a  newspaper  here  I  know  of  no  time 
that  Herrin  was  more  athirst  for  a  dose 
of  the  Old  Time  Religion,  the  kind  that 
the  song  says  that  "is  good  enough  for 
me,"  than  right  today.  We  have  endured 
for  a  long  spell  now  a  spurious  brand  of 
religion,  a  sort  of  "Hell  Bent  for  Heaven" 
sort,  that  teaches  that  God  is  Hate  instead 


18  Persuading   God    Back   To    Herrin 

of  Love — that  God  is  a  God  of  Vengeance. 
They  have  us  all  mixed  up  on  the  Com- 
mandments. The  "not"  has  been  dropped 
probably  for  convenience  sake  and  some- 
one has  inspired  our  people  to  kill,  to 
bear  false  witness,  etc.,  etc.  Instead  of 
obeying  the  injunction  of  "keeping  the 
commandments,  we  have  "broken  them," 
broken  nearly  all  of  them,  over  and  over 
again. 

If  your  Bible  has  all  the  pages  in  it — 
if  the  commandments  are  there  in  tact, 
if  Paul's  great  essay  on  Love  is  there,  if 
the  sermon  on  the  Mount  is  there  and  you 
preach  these  things — come  on  to  Herrin 
posthaste  for  here  you  are  needed — need- 
ed more  than  any  missionary  was  ever 
needed  in  Abyssinia,  more  than  Living- 
stone was  needed  in  Darkest  Africa. 

If  you  can  accomplish  only  a  few  little 
things,  you  will  have  done  great  good  to 
Herrin — make  us  believe  that  God  is  Love 
— that  we  should  really  love  our  neigh- 
bors, not  hate  them  nor  carry  guns  to  kill 
them  with,  if  you  can  only' get  people  who 
have  known  each  other  for' ten  and  twenty 
years  to  simply  greet  one  another  when 
they  pass  on  the  streets  with  a  brief  "good 
morning/'  surely  you  will  have  accomp- 
lished a  thing  which  we  have  all  failed  to 
bring  about  with  long  and  patient  effort. 

I  am  taking  the  liberty  to  hand  you 
herewith  my  personal  check  for  $50.00 
which  will  assist  in  bringing  your  party 
to  Herrin.  Once  here  I  want  to  assist  you 
further  financially.  In  addition  as  pub- 
lisher of  The  Herrin  News,  the  city's  old- 
est   and    first    established    newspaper,    I 


Persuading   God   Back  To   Herrin 


19 


want  to  pledge  you  the  unlimited  freedom 
of  its  news  columns  for  your  work  and  in 
addition  to  give  you  also  free  access,  with- 
out any  charge  whatsoever,  to  its  adver- 
tising columns.  What  more  can  I  do  to 
assure  you  that  I  am  for  you  and  your 
cauSe — but  as  I  said  before  bring  and  use 
a  Bible  that  has  all  the  pages  in  it,  and 
believe  me. 

Yours  very  truly, 
Hal  W.  Trovillion, 
Editor  The  Herrin  News. 

WILLIAMS  ACCEPTS  TERMS 
OUTLINED 

Metropolis,  111., 
May  10,  '25. 
Friend  Trovillion: 

God  bless  you,  friend.  Thanks  for  the 
fine  letter  and  generous  check.  Your 
words  inspire  me  and  as  I  read  the  letter 
I  prayed  as  I  never  have  before  for  power 
to  present  Christ  as  a  savior  of  love,  hope, 
cheer  and  good  will. 

God  is  going  to  have  the  victory  there. 
Thank  God  there  are  men  like  you  who 
love  Him  and  help  extend  His  kingdom. 

My  manager  "Doc"   Waddell  will   call 
when  he  gets  there.     I  will  see  you  soon. 
Your,  friend 

Howard  S.  Williams. 


20  Persuading  God   Back  To   Herrin 

HOME  BANK  UNDERWRITES 
WILLIAMS 

(Williams'   home  bank  vouched   for   his   sincerity  when  it   learned 
of  his  coming  to  Henin  through   The   News.) 

CITIZENS  BANK 

Capital  $100,000.00 

Hattiesburg,  Miss.  May  10,  1925. 
Editor  of  The  Herrin  News, 
Herrin,  111. 
Dear  Sir : 

Through  the  courtesy  of  some  one,  1 
have  received  a  copy  of  your  paper  of  May 
5th,  which  carries  the  announcement  of 
the  Howard  Williams  revival  shortly  to  be 
held  in  your  city.  I  was  glad  to  receive 
the  paper,  and  as  one  of  Mr.  Williams' 
friends,  appreciate  the  space  you  have 
given  his  work. 

I  can  unreservedly  commend  Mr.  Wil- 
liams to  the  citizens  of  Herrin,  111.,  as  a 
true  and  faithful  servant  of  Christ.  Your 
most  orthodox  people  can  afford  to  join 
with  him  in  his  campaign  to  save  lost 
souls  in  your  city.  He  is  sound  in  the 
fundamentals  of  our  Christian  religion, 
and  preaches  salvation  through  the  blood 
of  Jesus  Christ  with  great  power. 

Mr.  Williams  is  a  living  example  of 
what  the  marvelous  power  of  the  gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ  can  do  for  a  sinner  and  I 
sincerely  trust  that  full  co-operation  will 
be  extended  him  by  the  entire  Christian 
population  of  your  city,  and  I  am  sure  that 
under  the  leadership  of  the  Spirit  of  God 
he  will  accomplish  a  most  noteworthy 
work. 

G.  M.  McWilliams, 

Active  Vice-Pres. 


Persuading  God   Back  To   Herrin  21 

NEIGHBORING  MINISTERS 
APPEALED  TO 

(Christendom  throughout  southern  Illinois  was  notified  of  the 
final  test  that  Williams  and  his  old-time  brand  of  religion  would  be 
put  to  in  solving  one  of  the  most  complicated  problems  of  the  day 
and  here  is  the  letter  sent  to  all  ministers  in  this  section  announcing 
the  coming  of  the  liltle  man  from  Mississippi  by  whom  a  miracle 
was  to  be  performed.  These  ministers  to  whom  the  letter  was  sent 
were  asked  to  urge  their  conference  brothers  in  Herrin  to  co-operate 
in  the  work.) 

The  Herrin  News  Office. 
May  the  29,  '25. 
Dear  Friend : 

The  eyes  of  all  Christendom  throughout 
"Egypt"  are  upon  Herrin  and  Williamson 
county — a  land  that  many  think  God  has 
deserted  and  left  to  the  ruins  that  have 
been  wreaked  upon  it. 

But  we  have  a  bright  star  of  hope 
breaking  through  the  clouds. 

Layman-Evangelist  Howard  S.  Wil- 
liams is  tackling  the  mighty  job  of  our  re- 
generating. The  Herrin  News,  which 
was  the  first  newspaper  ever  founded  in 
Herrin  and  the  first  to  invite  him  hither- 
ward,  has  faith  in  his  ultimate  success. 
We  believe  that  our  problem  is  one  that 
you  are  interested  in  seeing  solved,  for  it 
is  sectional  rather  than  a  community 
blight.  They  have  tried  to  solve  it  with 
dynamite  blasts,  but  the  mute  pile  of 
brick  and  mortar  has  not  given  us  the 
answer  that  all  is  over.  They  have  trie'* 
powder  and  bullets  and  the  ten  widows 
and  the  28  orphans  made  by  them  have 
been  no  stop  signals  for  checking  our 
troubles.  Armies  have  come,  paraded  our 
streets  and  armies  have  passed  away,  but 
the  community  is  still  much  upset,  terribly 
disturbed  and  still  we  stand  at  dagger 
points.     Only  a  few  days  ago  a  committee 


22  Persuading   God   Back    io    Herrin 


went  to  Springfield  and  appealed  to  the 
Governor,  telling  him  the}'  feared  another 
outburst. 

They  have  tried  and  failed  utterly  ev- 
ery remedy  known  to  government,  prac- 
tically everything  known   in   fierce   w 
fare.     All  these  have  failed. 

Now  comes  Williams,  app  to  in- 

stitutions that  rep  eace  on  ea: 

good  will  toward  a  It  is  the  last 

and  fin 
not — not  at  all. 

You  will  undou 
on  this  great  series  of  meel  1  to  en- 

':  you  to  do  s 
to  send  you  The  H 
the    six 

cooperation  to  the 

I  hat 
all  I 

Yc :  lly, 

Hal  W.  Trovillion. 


3  GETS  ON  THE  JOB 

May  24 

With  the  Herrin  high  school  gym  pack- 
ed to  capa;  -man-Evangelist  How- 
ard S.  Williams  stepped  to  the  platform 
Sunday  evening  in 

ering  candles  when  the  electric  lights  fail- 
ed and  started  the  ball  rolling  in  a  six 
weeks  campaign  for  the  redemption  of 
Herrin.  It  is  the  biggest  undertaking  he 
or  any  other  minister  of  the  gospel  o- 
tackled  in  America.     No  other  community 


Persuading  God   Back  To   Herrin  23 

under  the  stars  and  stripes  finds  itself  to- 
day in  the  predicament  that  Herrin  and 
Williamson  county  are  in — spiritually, 
legally,  socially  and  from  practically  every 
angle  known  to  civilization. 

Williams  had  been  before  the  audience 
scarcely  five  minutes,  before  the  most  du- 
bious made  up  their  minds  that  he  was  a 
man  big  enough,  brave  enough,  cunning 
enough  for  the  job — that  he  had  the  nerve, 
the  power  and  the  love  to  overcome  all 
the  obstacles  that  have  already  and  may 
continue  to  be  put  in  the  way  of  his  suc- 
cess. He  is  the  sort  of  man  who  can  turn 
the  lemons  they  toss  him  into  a  cool,  sweet, 
smiling  drink,  and  he  can  catch  them, 
seed  them,  juice  them  as  fast  as  they  are 
pitched  him.  And  he  will  bring  ultimate 
triumph  out  of  the  religious  disaster  that 
has  befallen  this  prodigal  community. 

All  of  the  Protestant  ministers  of  the 
city  were  there — all  save  Rev.  Story  of 
the  Christian  church.  No  one  appeared 
to  represent  or  speak  for  him.  Not  one 
spoke  in  behalf  of  the  congregation  he 
leads. 

Rev.  Lee  for  the  Baptist  made  a  faithful 
promise  that  "we  will  do  what  we  can  to 
make  this  meeting  a  success/' 

Rev.  Glotfelty  of  the  Methodist  pledged 
them  ONE  HUNDRED  PERCENT. 

Rev.  Meeker  of  the  Presbyterian 
church,  who  has  been  untiring  in  his  ef- 
forts to  bring  the  Williams  meetings  here, 
assured  the  party  that  he  and  his  congre- 
gation would  co-operate  to  the  fullest  ex- 
tent. 

In  behalf  of  the  city,  Mayor  Marshall 


24  Persuading  God   Back  To   Herrin 

McCormack  welcomed  the  party  and  told 
them  that  Herrin  needed  the  services  of 
Williams  and  that  the  city  would  lend 
whatever  aid  it  could  to  the  complete  suc- 
cess of  the  campaign. 

Manager  John  Marlow,  of  the  Hippo- 
drome and  Annex  Theatres,  has  placed  the 
Annex  theatre  at  the  full  disposal  of  the 
party  for  their  noon-day  meetings. 

The  committees  are  working  fine. 

The  city  is  waking  up. 

The  co-operation  from  everywhere  is 
most  beautiful  and  reflects  the  opinion 
that  Christian  charity  and  helpfulness  is 
not  an  entire  lost  art  in  this  old  town  that 
has  been  accused  and  many  times  guilty  of 
every  crime  under  the  sun.  The  pull- 
backs  are  very  very  rare  and  remind  us 
that  the  Herrin  of  the  Reign  of  Terror 
period  is  gradually  moving  aside  for  the 
old  Herrin  of  years  ago  when  man  loved 
his  neighbor  and  all  was  well  with  the 
world  and  God  was  in  His  Heaven. 

We  have  every  reason  to  believe  that 
Williams  will  do  a  world  of  good  here.  If 
he  can  only  get  us  back  to  some  of  the 
simple  observances  of  civilized  life,  his 
coming  will  have  been  a  wonderful  thing. 
If  he  can  take  the  gun  out  of  hip  pockets 
and  put  in  place  a  clean  handkerchief,  he 
will  have  bettered  the  community  bounte- 
ously. If  he  can  remove  the  grouchy 
frown  from  the  faces  of  people  we  meet 
on  the  street  and  place  thereon  a  kindly 
smile — exterminate  hate,  plant  love;  get 
men  to  thinking  about  saving  life  rather 
than  taking  it  away.  There's  a  world  of 
little  things  that  he  can  and  will  do,  for 


Persuading   God    Back  To   Herrin  25 


he's  starting  in  the  right  way  along  the 
right  road  and  we're  staking  our  reputa- 
tion on  him  finishing  the  job. 

For  he's  dead  in  earnest — knows  what 
he's  about  and  where  he's  headed  for  and 
the  world  stands  aside  to  let  such  a  man 
pass  who  knows  where  he  is  going. 

Success — a  big  bounding  success  to  you 
Williams. 

A  GOOD  WOMAN  INTERESTED 

(The  open-letter  invitation  sent  to  Williams  was  published  far 
and  wide.  Letters  like  this  one,  commending  and  encouraging,  came 
in  from  all  sections  of  the  United  States.  This  particular  one  is  il- 
lustrative of  the  earnest  interest  shown  by  a  nearby  Christian  worker, 
Mrs.  Mitchell,  a  prominent  Methodist  District  official  of  Carbondale, 
Illinois.) 

Carbondale,  111. 
May  14,  1925. 
Mr.  Hal  W.  Trovillion, 
Herrin,  111. 
Dear  Sir: 

At  noon  today  I  found  in  my  mail  a 
clipping  from  your  paper  that  was  read 
with  great  interest,  and  I  thank  you  for 
giving  me  the  privilege  of  reading  it. 
Congratulations  to  you  for  finding  the 
Holy  Grail  for  your  city.  To  me  you  have 
found  the  golden  key  that  will  unlock  the 
door  of  new  opportunity,  and  the  position 
which  you  hold  as  editor  of  The  Herrin 
News,  will  play  no  small  part  in  making  a 
very  different  city  of  Herrin. 

Dr.  Mitchell  and  I  both  are  from  Wil- 
liamson County,  and  both  are  much  in- 
terested in  letting  the  world  see  that  good 
can  come  out  of  and  be  maintained  in  that 
section  of  the  State.  We  know  there  are 
as  many  good  people  with  high  ideals  in 
that  county  as  in  any  other  county  of  the 


26  Persuading   God    Back   To    Herrin 

state.  We  also  know  that  "Bloody  Wil- 
liamson" was  written  by  a  man  who  did 
not  hesitate  to  put  into  it  sensational 
things  for  commercial  purposes  solely. 

We  stand  ready  to  co-operate  with  the 
evangelist  and  all  good  people  who  want 
to  give  the  Lord  right  of  way  in  their 
hearts  and  lives. 

In  this  great  society  which  it  is  my 
pleasure  to  represent,  I  have  repeatedly 
said  nothing  but  the  Old  Time  Religion 
will  make  things  right;  and  have  recom- 
mended to  our  women  over  Southern  Illi- 
nois in  this  our  Carbondale  District,  to 
keep  a  Deaconess  in  Herrin  or  Marion  who 
would  show  those  people  the  Christ  by  her 
daily  life,  teach  them  how  to  live.  A  doz- 
en years  ago  we  tried  to  get  that  through 
but  were  told  the  time  was  not  ripe,  money 
is  not  at  hand,  or  some  other  excuse. 
There  has  been  a  deep  conviction  in  my 
heart  that  if  we  had  done  so  then  these 
awful  things  would  not  have  occured. 

There  is  such  a  misunderstanding  be- 
tween foreigners  and  our  people.  We 
must  show  them  Christ  in  us,  and  Dr.  E. 
Stanley  Jones  has  just  said,  "we  must  Be 
Christ  like  and  give  ourselves  that  we  may 
win  them." 

Very  sincerely, 

Adella  B.  Mitchell. 


CHURCH  PUBLICATION  PRAISES 
EFFORT 

(The  Northwestern  Christian  Advocate,  the  most  widely  read 
Methodist  publication  in  the  Mid  West,  contained  the  following  com- 
ment upon  the  coming  of  Williams  into  Herrin.) 

Everybody  knows   Herrin,   Illinois.     It 
has  had  advertising  enough,  of  a  sort.  But 


Persuading  God   Back  To   Herrin  27 

some  of  the  citizens  are  not  happy.  One 
of  them,  the  editor  of  The  News,  the 
town's  oldest  newspaper,  has  written  to  an 
evangelist,  asking  him  to  come  to  Herrin 
and  preach  what  he  calls  the  "Old  Time 
Religion." 

Says  Editor  Trovillion:  "We  have 
endured  for  a  long  spell  now  a  spurious 
brand  of  religion,  a  kind  of  'Hell  Bent  for 
Heaven'  sort,  that  teaches  that  God  is 
hate  instead  of  love — that  God  is  a  God  of 
vengeance.  The  'not'  has  been  dropped 
from  all  the  Commandments  and  some- 
one has  inspired  our  people  to  kill,  to  bear 
false  witness,  etc.,  etc.  Instead  of  obey- 
ing the  injunction  of  'keeping  the  Com- 
mandments' we  have  broken  them,  broken 
nearly  all  of  them,  over  and  over  again." 

But  an  important  condition  is  pointed 
out.  "If  your  Bible  has  all  the  pages  in 
it — if  the  Commandments  are  there  intact, 
if  Paul's  great  essay  on  love  is  there,  if 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  there,  and  if 
you  preach  these  things — come  to  Herrin 
posthaste  for  here  you  are  needed — needed 
more  than  any  missionary  was  ever  need- 
ed in  Abyssinia,  more  than  Livingstone 
was  needed  in  Darkest  Africa." 

And  then  the  editor  tells  what  Herrin 
needs  and  he  hopes  for:  "If  you  can  ac- 
complish only  a  few  little  things  you  will 
have  done  great  good  to  Herrin — make  us 
believe  that  God  is  love — that  we  should 
really  love  our  neighbors  not  hate  them 
nor  carry  guns  to  kill  them  with;  if  you 
can  only  get  people  who  have  known  each 
other  for  ten  and  twenty  years  to  simply 
greet  one  another  when  they  pass  on  the 


28  Persuading   God    Back  To    Herrin 


streets  with  a  brief  'good  morning/  surely 
you  will  have  accomplished  a  thing  which 
we  have  all  failed  to  bring  about  with  long 
and  patient  effort." 

For  a  layman,  editor  of  a  secular  news- 
paper in  a  hate-cursed  prejudice-ridden 
community,  this  citizen  of  Herrin  has 
made  a  diagnosis  at  once  accurate  and 
courageous. 

Herrin  is  not  the  only  sinner  among  Il- 
linois cities.  She  has  had  the  misfortune 
to  be  a  storm  center  of  turbulent  and 
mighty  passions,  but  the  conditions  for 
similar  outbreaks  may  be  found  in  many 
other  communities. 

And  it  is  futile  to  expect  that  compro- 
mise will  cure  the  evil,  or  that  truces  can 
be  made  to  last.  "There  is  no  end  to 
strife/'  Only  as  the  way  of  strife  is 
abandoned  and  another  way  chosen  can  a 
troubled  city  find  peace. 

It  is  the  way  which  leads  from  fear  to 
love,  from  strife  to  fellowship,  from  the 
Hymn  of  Hate  to  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
— the  way  of  Christ's  obedience. 

Which  is  an  old  story,  and  may  seem 
commonplace.  It  has  one  modest  but  suf- 
ficient credential — it  works. 


COMMERCIAL  WRITER  DISCOVERS 
HERRIN 

(Lester  S.  Cclby,  publicity  representative  of  the  Illinois  Chamber 
of  Commerce,  who  was  touring  Illinois  advertising  the  Illinois  Products 
Exposition  which  is  to  be  held  in  Chicago,  October  8th  to  17th  next, 
passed  through  Williamson  County  and  his  observations  given  in  part 
below  reveal  that  he  discovered  quite  a  different  country  than  the 
stranger  would  expect  to  run  onto  from  reading  newspaper  reports  that 
have  for  the  past  eighteen  months  been  broadcasted  from  ocean  to 
ocean  in  America.  Mr.  Colby  hit  Herrin  just  as  it  was  bowing  its 
head  in  prayer  for  the  highnoon  prayer  meetings  that  Howard  S. 
Williams'  party  held  daily.) 

Herrin   prayed.     It   was  noon   when   I 


Persuading   God    Back  To    Herrin  29 

arrived  in  Herrin  and  the  sight  I  saw 
amazed  me.  Herrin  stood  with  bowed 
head.  1  had  never  dreamed  of  Herrin  as 
prayerful.  Herrin,  Marion,  Williamson 
county — somehow  that  is  not  the  picture. 
I  would  have  been  less  surprised  to  smell 
powder  smoke,  see  gutters  stained  red. 
Such  is  reputation. 

In  the  restaurant  hung  a  placard  : 

THIS  PLACE  WILL  BE  CLOSED  AT  NOON  FOR 
PRAYER 

In  other  business  houses,  all  through 
the  city,  I  found  many,  many  similar 
signs.  One,  in  a  barber  shop,  bore  the 
mute  words : 

"For  what  shall  it  profit  a  man  if  he 
gain  the  whole  world  though  he  loseth  his 
own  soul." 

So  this  was  Herrin !  This  "Bloody  Wil- 
liamson county !"  I  pinched  myself  and 
discovered  that  I  was  awake.  I  saw  post- 
ers everywhere  announcing  that  Howard 
S.  Williams,  layman  evangelist,  the 
"Mississippi  Thunderbolt,"  was  holding  a 
series  of  revival  meetings  in  Herrin. 

And  Herrin,  they  tell  me,  is  hitting  the 
sawdust  trail  to  salvation.  So  I  ask  what 
sort  of  countryside  is  this — Herrin,  Mar- 
ion, Williamson  County. 

Williamson  county  has  bank  deposits  of 
about  $14,500,000.  Of  this  money  $5,- 
500,000  is  in  Marion  banks,  $4,500,000  in 
Herrin  banks  and  the  rest  scattered 
through  the  smaller  communities.  Rec- 
ords of  42  years  show  that  Williamson 
county  has  produced  more  coal  in  that 
time  than  any  other  Illinois  county,  the 


30  Persuading   God    Back  To    Herrin 

total  169,338.888  tons.     Franklin  county., 
next,  on  the  north  is  fourth  with  135,969,- 

446. 


PERSUADING  GOD  BACK  TO  HERRIN 

(Editorial  in  The  Herrin  News,  issue  of  July  10, 
1925) 

Howard  S.  Williams  will  close  his 
evangelistic  campaign  in  Herrin  Sunday 
evening.  It  has  been  the  greatest  relig- 
ious awakening  that  this  section  of  Illinois 
has  ever  had.  Success  has  crowned  his 
efforts  to  turn  the  people  of  this  misdi- 
rected community  back  to  the  Cross  of 
Jesus.  And  it  is  quite  a  different  symbol 
from  the  one  that  has  burned  for  the  last 
eighteen  months  on  these  broad  and  fair 
prairies. 

A  little  later  on  when  all  the  truth  can 
be  told,  when  time  has  set  things  aright, 
when  the  bitterness  of  the  fight  shall  have 
been  forgotten,  and  we  hope  when  all  shall 
have  been  forgiven  for  the  terrible  crimes 
committed  here  there  will  be  a  history 
written  about  Herrin — Herrin  that  was 
so  much  in  the  spot  light  of  1924  and 
1925.  Someone  will  pen  the  final  para- 
graph which  will  seek  its  permanent  place 
in  the  chronicles  of  the  world.  And  when 
it  comes  to  giving  credit  for  the  pioneer 
work  of  guiding  us  back  to  normal,  usher- 
ing in  the  era  of  good  feeling  which  al- 
ways follows  a  social  and  political  up- 
heavel  such  as  has  been  ours,  the  name  of 
Howard  S.  Williams,  the  little  layman- 
editor-evangelist  from  Mississippi,  will 
come  in  for  big  mention.  It  may  be  truth- 
fully said  of  him  that  he  contributed  all 


Persuading   God    Back  To    Herrin  31 

the  earnest  of  his  entire  heart  and  soui 
to  heal  the  running  raw  wounds  he  found 
upon  his  advent  to  this  city.  History  will 
characterize  him  as  the  man  who  persuad- 
ed God  back  to  Herrin.  That's  a  mighty 
strong  statement  to  utter,  but  not  a  bit 
sacrilegious.  For  if  God  was  anywhere 
about  when  we  were  grabbing  at  one  an- 
others  throats  a  few  months  ago,  we  don't 
know  where  He  was  hiding.  He  wasn't  in 
the  House  of  God,  that's  certain,  for  from 
out  of  these  very  places  came  many  accus- 
ed of  the  killings  just  the  same  as  those 
who  hailed  from  the  by-ways  and  high- 
ways of  the  county. 

Modern  history  does  not  reveal  a  com- 
munity so  completely  God-forsaken  as  was 
Herrin  and  Williamson  county  before  Wil- 
liams came.  This  was  a  wilderness  of 
hate,  a  veritable  jungle  of  jealousy.  Old 
friends  would  not  speak  with  one  another. 
Everybody  seemed  crazed.  God  might 
have  been  in  His  heaven  all  the  time  but 
no  one  was  pointing  to  him  there  and  it 
was  not  at  all  well  with  the  world  we  liv- 
ed in  here,  neither  was  it  safe  as  the  ten 
widows  and  twenty-eight  orphans  who 
now  bear  witness.  Into  this  seething 
mess  of  human  ills  ventured  Williams, 
knowingly,  and  warned  that  he  was  walk- 
ing into  a  real  hornets'  nest.  But  he 
courageously  ventured  forth  and  with  a 
single  message — a  simple  three  word 
message  that  we  had  all  heard  over  and 
over  again,  but  all  had  forgotten  its  sig- 
nificance : 

GOD  IS  LOVE. 

And  he  didn't  say  it  with  perfunctory 


32  Persuading  God   Back  To   Herrin 


They  Were  Strangers  Both 


Their  Mission  Was  to  Solve  the  Community 
Problems 


THE   STARTER 


S.   GLENN    YOUNG 
who  tackled  the  task  with  a  gun 


Persuading  God   Back  To   Herrin  33 


And  We  Took  Them  In 


Each    Worked    in    His    Own    Way    This    Task    to 
Perform 


THE  FINISHER 


HOWARD  S.  WILLIAMS 
who  finished  the  job  with  the  old   Bible 


34  Persuading   God    Back  To    Herrin 


lip  movement,  but  he  uttered  it  with  all 
his  strength  and  heart  and  soul.  No  won- 
der the  people  heard  him  as  they  did  of 
old  the  Master,  believing  in  him.  He  led 
them  to  a  rediscovery  of  a  great  religious 
principle — it  was  the  beginning  and  the 
end  of  it  all. 

If  there  is  one  thing  above  all  others 
that  impresses  one  with  this  man  from 
Mississippi,  it  is  that  he  is  deadly  in 
earnest.  He  has  none  of  the  charlatan 
about  him,  is  not  the  salesman  type  of 
evangelist,  but  with  him  it's  the  most  ser- 
ious matter  in  the  world.  A  man  on  the 
street  the  other  day   put  it   well   in   his 

rough  observation   when   he   remarked 

"that  fellow  Williams  would  go  to  hell  to 
save  a  soul."  And  we  think  that  he  would 
almost  risk  his  life  in  the  task. 

Williams  has  done  a  world  of  good  for 
Herrin  and  Williamson  county two  geo- 
graphical units  that  to  the  outside  world 
mean  "Mob  Madness."  If  you  don't 
agree  with  us,  get  in  your  machine  some 
pretty  day  and  motor  out  in  any  direction 
about  a  hundred  miles.  No  matter  where 
you  stop,  whether  at  a  cross  roads  oil 
station,  beside  a  field  where  a  boy  is 
plowing,  at  the  garage  at  night,  at  a  res- 
taurant, a  hot  dog  stand  or  newspaper 
office,  no  matter  where— just  you  tell 
them  where  you  hail  from  and  then  watch 
that  condescending  expression  come  over 
their  face  and  listen  for  the  final  apole- 
getic  remark,  "well,  I  guess  that  there  are 
SOME  nice  people  there." 

We  hope  we  can  live  it  down.  But  it 
doesn't   matter    what   the    outside    world 


Persuading   God   Back  To    Herrin  35 

thinks  about  us  as  much  as  it  does  what 
we  think  of  one  another.  For  it  is  with 
one  another  that  we  must  get  along  if  we 
are  to  endure  as  a  peaceful  and  prosperous 
community  that  we  once  were.  Get- 
ting along  with  one  another  is  what  Wil- 
liams has  been  driving  home  to  us.  He 
scored  the  trouble  stirer,  the  agitator. 
His  simple  recipe  for  getting  along  was 
again  the  often  repeated  three  word  mes- 
sage: 

LOVE  ONE  ANOTHER. 

And  if  there  is  a  single  parting  sentence 
of  all  the  six  weeks  preaching  he  has  done 
at  the  tabernacle  that  should  stick  in  the 
memory  of  every  man,  woman  and  child 
that  heard  him,  it  should  be  this  one — 
LOVE  ONE  ANOTHER.  If  we  but  prac- 
tice this,  we  may  hopefully  expect  no  more 
Herrin  spread  over  the  front  pages  of  the 
newspapers  that  hold  us  up  before  the  na- 
tions as  the  meanest  city  on  the  globe. 

The  co-operation  given  Williams  in  it- 
self proves  that  we  are  all  anxious  to 
usher  in  an  era  of  good  feeling,  the  for- 
getting and  forgiving  period  where  we 
bury  the  hatchet  as  it  is  sometimes  called. 
There  are  signs  that  w^e  are  at  least  ap- 
proaching the  starting  point.  For  no  one 
has  labored  harder  to  set  us  off  on  the 
pleasant  voyage  than  this  man  Williams. 
No  single  event  in  all  of  Herrin's  tempes- 
tuous career  was  given  as  complete  a  right 
of  way.  as  that  accorded  the  Williams 
evangelistic  party.  They  operated  on 
clear  track  orders  and  nothing  got  in  their 
way.  Practically  every  business  house  in 
the  city  for  the  past  six  weeks  has  been 


36  Persuading   God    Back  To    Herrin 

closing  up  from  11:30  to  12  o'clock  noon 
for  the  mid-day  prayer  meetings,  many  of 
which  were  held  in  the  principal  places  of 
business.  In  the  very  room  where  S. 
Glenn  Young  and  Deputy  Sheriff  Ora 
Thomas  staged  their  final  and  fatal  battle 
hangs  from  a  coat  rack  on  the  spot  where 
Young  fell  a  big  poster  advertising  the 
Williams  meetings.  And  this  historical 
little  cigar  store  which  is  known  all  over 
the  land  by  the  many  pictures  published  of 
it  opened  its  doors  at  noon  along  with 
many  other  places  for  a  noontime  prayer 
meeting. 

The  newspapers  too  did  their  level  best 
to  help  Williams,  for  he  was  one  of  their 
fellows,  a  former  successful  Hattiesburg, 
Miss.,  newspaper  publisher.  Xo  single 
topic  ever  before  made  a  two  column 
place  on  the  front  page  for  six  consecutive 
weeks  in  all  of  the  twenty  years  that  The 
Herrin  News,  the  city's  first  paper,  has 
been  published.  Williams'  meetings  were 
given  carte  blanche  and  Dear  Old  Doc 
Waddle,  who  used  to  dope  out  the  press 
matter  for  the  John  Robinson's  Shows  and 
who  today  probably  knows  more  newspa- 
per men  than  any  other  in  the  nation,  cov- 
ered the  meeting  and  the  press  took  his 
stuff,  as  he  wanted  to  call  it,  right  from 
his  graphic  pen. 

The  preachers  of  Herrin  co-operated 
splendidly,  save  just  one,  Rev.  Story, 
pastor  of  the  Christian  church.  'His  ex- 
cuse was  that  his  people  had  concluded 
not  to  join  in.  However  most  all  of  them 
attended  the  meetings  regularly  and  his 
own  family  came  often.  Every  other  min- 


Persuading   God    Back   To    Herrin  37 


ister  in  the  entire  county  was  in  the  meet- 
ing giving  assistance  from  time  to  time. 

But  now  that  Williams  is  soon  to  leave, 
the  problem  is  ours  again  to  preserve  our- 
selves. He  has  preached  peace  and  good 
will  toward  all  men,  for  it  was  the  soul  of 
man  that  he  was  concerned  with,  not  the 
occupation  nor  the  previous  condition  of 
the  man.  He  loved  us  for  our  future, 
not  for  our  past.  And  as  long  as  the 
things  he  urged  upon  us  abide  just  that 
long  will  we  go  ahead  peaceably.  There 
cannot  be  any  denying  the  fact  we  had 
drifted  far  at  sea.  There  can  be  no  dis- 
puting it  either  that  false  beacon  lights 
had  lured  us  into  dangerous  straights  and 
on  to  disaster.  It  is  also  undeniable,  and 
history  will  so  record  the  fact  that  tho 
very  institutions  that  should  have  been 
life-saving  stations,  were  not  manned,  the 
crew  was  not  on  the  job.  Slowly  but 
surely  our  ship  went  down.  It  was  not 
only  a  breakdown  of  the  law  that  many 
still  contend  caused  it  all,  it  was  partly  a 
religious  collapse  of  the  entire  community. 
But  we  are  now  set  well  back  on  the  road, 
the  church  houses  are  rechristened  once 
more  as  the  House  of  God,  and  we  hope 
they  will  be  used  as  such  and  that  all  will 
stay  put  right.  Williams  has  handed  us 
an  accurate  compass,  and  believing  in  the 
brotherhood  of  man,  the  fatherhood  of 
God  and  with  that  compass  pointed  to  the 
star  of  Bethlehem  and  with  our  eyes  on 
a  cross  that  proclaims  a  Jesus  we  may 
hope  for  a  bon  voyage  back  to  that  far 
distant  land  where  still  dwell  the  sane  and 
sensible  people  of  modern  civilization. 


38  Persuading  God   Back  To   Herrin 


COMMENTS  FROM  THE  PRESS 


1,000  BAD  MEN  IN   HERRIN  TAMED 
BY  EVANGELIST 

(This  account  of  the  dramatic  close  of  the  Williams'  meetings 
was  written  by  Wilbur  Forrest,  correspondent  en  chief  for  the  Paris, 
France,  edition  of  the  New  York  Herald  Tribune.  He  was  a  war  cor- 
respondent assigned  to  France  sometime  ago  and  his  ability  as  a  news- 
gatherer  ?nd  correspondent  attracted  the  attention  of  the  Herald  Trib- 
une and  at  the  close  of  the  World  War,  he  was  placed  in  charge  of 
the  correspondents  in  the  Paris  office  of  that  paper.  Coming  to  the 
States  this  summer  for  a  brief  vacation,  he  was  given  two  assign- 
ments as  he  journeyed  to  the  Middle  West.  One  was  to  stop  off  at 
Detroit  and  interview  Henry  Ford,  the  other  to  come  on  to  Herrin  and 
cover  the  close  of  th°  Williams'   meetings.     Both  tasks  he  did  well.) 

With  upward  of  a  thousand  souls,  including 
gunmen,  bootleggers,  feudists,  gamblers  and  other 
bad  characters,  converted  and  tied  to  the  doctrine 
of  brotherly  love,  the  Rev.  Howard  S.  Williams,  of 
Mississippi,  editor,  evangelist,  left  Herrin  today. 
after  a  series  of  revival  services. 

"Bloody  Herrin,"  known  the  world  over  for  its 
battles  betwreen  opposing  factions,  is  as  calm  and 
peaceful  as  any  city  of  its  size  in  Illinois.  The 
Rev.  Mr.  Williams,  wrho  departed  for  Chicago  for 
a  period  of  rest,  took  with  him  the  thanks  of  che 
leading  citizens  of  the  town,  who  credit  his 
rough-and-ready  theology  with  doing  the  hitherto 
impossible  in  bringing  men,  who  a  short  time  ago 
were  carrying  guns  and  threatening  to  take  life, 
into  friendly  handshakes,  with  a  bond  of  Christ- 
ianity between  them. 

Old-Time    Religion   Wins 

Mr.  Williams  is  a  lay  evangelist,  who  preaches 
the  old-time  religion.  His  converts  include 
Protestants  and  Catholics,  and  among  his  most 
hearty  supporters  have  been  the  Jewish  men  of 
the  town. 

Among  his  converts  were  J.  O.  Reagan,  A.  F. 
Yates  and  J.  H.  Capps,  avowed  feudists,  who 
promised   to   lay   down   their   automatics   and   ac- 


Persuading   God    Back   To    Herrin  39 

cept  religion.  The  most  notable  conversion  was 
Edward  Hartwell,  right-hand  man  and  bodyguard 
of  Sheriff  George  Galligan.  Hartwell  is  going  in- 
to some  other  business. 

Galligan  has  not  hit  the  trail,  but  has  come 
to  Herrin  to  attend  revivals.  On  his  last  visit 
Evangelist  Williams  asked  5,000  people  in  his 
tabernacle  to  recognize  the  Sheriff  as  the  symbol 
of  law  and  order  in  Williamson  County.  Several 
hundred,  including  bad  men  who  had  sworn  to 
"get"  him,  rushed  over  and  shook  the  Sheriff's 
hands. 

Others  who  have  forsaken  sin  for  Christ  are 
Don  Childers,  who,  crying  like  a  child,  admitted 
before  thousands  at  the  tabernacle  that  he  was  a 
gun  toter. 

Credits   Higher  Agency 

Mr.  Williams  credits  his  great  success  in  Her- 
rin to  something  higher  than  man's  ability. 
Fundamentally,  sin  was  responsible  for  the  ills  of 
Herrin,  just  the  same  as  elsewhere,  he  told  the 
Herald  Tribune  before  his  departure.  Herrin  is 
no  different  from  any  other  city,  he  holds,  except 
that  possibly  men  here  let  hate  and  jealousy  run 
riot. 

"Humanly  speaking,  I  would  not  dara  to  try 
to  place  the  blame  for  Herrin  on  any  individual 
or  organization,"  he  said.  "It  was  simply  that  sin 
was  there  and  had  to  be  eradicated  before  the 
town  could  be  cleaned  up.  There  is  only  one 
antidote  for  sin.     That  is  Christ." 

Evangelist  Williams,  former  Associated  Press 
correspondent  and  editor  of  a  small  newspaper  in 
Mississippi,  was  converted  by  Gypsy  Smith,  Jr., 
two  and  a  half  years  ago.  For  the  last  eighteen 
months  he  has  been  exhorting  people  to  leave  the 
paths  of  sin. 

"I  have  thought  it  right  to  go  out  in  the  world 


40  Persuading   God    Back  To    Herrin 

and  sell  Christ  to  others/'  he  said.  "I  am  a 
salesman  of  Christ  and  a  salesman  must  know  his 
goods.  Here  in  Herrin,  during  the  last  few 
weeks,,  hundreds  who  have  hated  one  another, 
dozens  who  have  been  drunkards  and  adulterers, 
scores  who  have  been  bootleggers  and  pistol- 
toters,  craps-shooters  and  booze-hounds  have  hit 
the  trail.  God's  laws,  with  His  divine  help,  have 
conclusively  proven  that  a  power  greater  than 
human  power  is  absolutely  essential  for  the  re- 
generation. 

Holds   Dry   Laws   Futile 

"Reformation  can  never  precede  regeneration, 
There  must  be  deeper  motives  to  quit  drinking 
booze  than  man's  laws.  If  the  United  States  gov- 
ernment would  spend  10  per  cent  of  the  money 
now  engaged  in  chasing  bootleggers  to  ereut 
gospel  tents  and  put  evangelists  in  the  field,  they 
could  settle  this  liquor  problem  within  the  next 
twelve  months.  I  have  seen  at  least  one  hundred 
bootleggers  concerted  in  my  tabernacles  during 
the  last  eighteen  months  and  the  first  thing  they 
do  is  to  go  out  and  lead  others  to  accept  Christ." 

Getting  back  to  how  he  cleaned  up  Herrin,  the 
evangelist  added: 

"When  I  first  came  here,  I  asked  them  night 
after  night  to  read  the  thirteenth  chapter  of  First 
Corinthians.  That's  the  great  love  chapter, 
wherein  Paul  says  that  if  a  man  hasn't  love  he  is 
as  sounding  brass  and  a  tinkling  cymbal.  I  have 
tried  here  to  hit  the  love  notes  all  the  way 
through,  at  the  same  time  condemning  sin  with- 
out fear  or  favor." 

Riotous  Nightmare  Ended 

The  hideous  nightmare  of  massacres,  factional 
gun-fighting  between  union  and  non-union  forces, 
elements  of  wet  and  dry,  Ku  Klux  and  anti-  Ku 
Klux,  since  1922  is  now  forgotten  history,  leading 


Persuading  God   Back  To    Herrin  41 


citizens  of  Herrin  said  today.  According  to  Mayor 
Marshall  MacCormack,  former  Ku  Klux  leader, 
more  than  one  hundred  gunmen,  bootleggers  ani 
all-around  bad  men  have  folded  their  tents  and 
slunk  away  for  good  under  the  glaring  spotlight 
of  vigorous  Christianity,  which  Williams  brought 
to  Herrin,  beginning  six  weeks  ago. 

"History  will  characterize  Williams  as  the  man 
who  persuaded  God  back  to  Herrin,"  Hal  W.  Tro- 
villion,  Illinois  state  official  and  Herrin  editor, 
said.  "That's  a  mighty  strong  statement  to  utter, 
but  not  a  bit  sacrilegious.  For,  if  God  was  any- 
where about  when  we  were  grabbing  at  one  an 
other's  throats  a  few  months  ago,  we  don't  know 
where  he  was  hiding.  He  wasn't  in  Herrin 
churches — that's  certain — for  from  out  of  these 
places  came  many  accused  of  killings." 
Wilson   Classmate  as  Aid 

Much  credit  for  bringing  the  hard-hitting 
Mississippi  evangelist  to  Herrin  goes  to  the  Rev. 
John  Meeker,  graduate  of  the  Princeton  Theo- 
logical School  and  friend  and  one-time  classmate 
of  Woodrow  Wilson.  Meeker  was  Herrin's  one 
preacher  who  remained  aloof  from  Klan  and  anti- 
Klan  troubles  culminating  in  the  slaying  of  Dep- 
uty Sheriff  Ora  Thomas  and  S.  Glenn  Young, 
Klan  leader,  last  January. 

Williams  then  was  holding  revivals  at  Cairo, 
111.,  and  Meeker  made  overtures  to  bring  him  to 
Herrin.  Other  Protestant  ministers  declined  to 
support  the  movement,  but,  when  the  evangelist 
finally  came,  they  all  were  present  to  hear  him, 
except  the  minister  of  the  Herrin  Christian 
Church,  who  has  steadfastly  refused  to  support 
the  Williams  brand  of  non-sectarian  soul-saving. 

The  Christian  congregation  consequently  held 
a  meeting  to  decide  whether  their  minister  should 
be  allowed  to  remain  with  them. 


42  Persuading   God    Back  To    Herrin 

Herrin  Reborn,  Say  Citizens 

Whether  the  results  of  Evangelist  Williams' 
clean-up  here  will  endure  is  the  interesting  ques- 
tion. Most  of  Herrin's  leading  citizens  witn 
whom  the  Herald  Tribune  correspondent  talked 
believe  Herrin's  troubles  are  over.  A  few  weeks 
ago  the  community  was  a  jungle  of  hatred  and 
antagonism.  Old  friends  ignored  one  another  on 
the  streets.  Uncompromising  feudism  was  in  the 
air.  Men  were  for  or  against  one  another,  witn 
no  middle  ground.  About  thirty  widows  and  or- 
phans and  many  graves  in  the  Herrin  Cemetery 
told  the  story  of  a  sort  of  earthly,  hell-fire  and 
damnation  atmosphere  in  which  the  community 
was  suffering.  There  was  no  medium  with  which 
to  bring  opposing  feudists  together.  Although 
many  were  tired  of  the  fight,  they  had  to  go  on. 

Then  came  Williams.  That  is  the  story  or 
Herrin's  revival.  A  nervy  little  Southern  lay 
preacher  told  Herrin's  gunmen  where  to  head  in. 
He  did  it  with  his  coat  off,  with  fists  flailing  tne 
air  and  without  a  pistol  strapped  to  his  hip.  Her- 
rin's bad  eggs  wilted  and  hit  the  trail.  Others 
saw  the  handwriting  on  the  wall  and  slunk  away. 

Whether  the  converts  will  lose  their  new  founl 
religion  or  others  will  return  to  bring  mob  mad- 
ness and  death  back  to  Herrin  is  now  the  ques- 
tion, but  the  average  citizen  here  thinks  nor. 
Herrin  is  born  again,  they  say,  and  all  credit 
goes  to  the  former  Mississippi  editor,  who  has 
the  reputation  of  being  willing  to  go  to  hell  to 
save  a  soul. 

Klan    Organization   "Through" 

His  fame  has  spread  until  St.  Louis  has  beck- 
oned him  to  save  souls  in  that  city  in  a  great 
tabernacle  built  and  supported  by  more  than  a 
hundred  churches.  But  saving  Herrin  from  her- 
self with  a  two-fisted  doctrine  of  love  one  another 


Persuading   Gcd   Back  To    Herrin  43 


will  probably  stand  as  the  Mississippi  lay  evange- 
list's greatest  feat.  Anyway,  without  mentioi 
the  term  Ku  Kiux  Klan  once  in  his  noonday  meet- 
ings and  night  revivals,  he  has  succeeded  in 
putting  the  Herrin  Kluckers  out  of  business.  A 
few  days  ago  Herrin's  Klan  newspaper  filed  a 
petition  in  bankruptcy  and  converted  members 
of  the  Klan  now  admit  that  their  local  orgr. 
tion  is  virtually  through. 

Figuratively,   he    has    taken    the    guns    out   of 
Herrin's    hip    pockets    and    replaced    th< 
clea:.  is.     He  I 

on  the  faces   of   :  grouchy 

frowns    .  ;.     Such   is    the   result   that   th-e 

outside  observer  sees  out  of  Williams'  camp- 
Perhaps  any 

but  the  el-s   12,000   citizens 

ready  to  erect  a  monu: 
him  all  the  credit. 


WILLIAMS  TO  INVADE  HERRIN 

(Throughout  all  of  ' 
newspaper   in 

did  the  News-Democrat  of  Belleville,  Illinois,  edited  and  published  by 
Fred  J.  Kern,  its  sole  owner.  His  editorials  were  absolutely  fearless 
and   he    dared    to 

Illinois   country  journalism   has  i    than   Editor   Kern.     He 

belongs  rightly  among  that  galaxy  of  that  grand  profession  of  the 
ante  bellum  days  when  the  editorial  column  thundered  louder  than 
any  other  page  of  the  newspaper.  This  article  is  published  with  no 
intended   malice,  ! 

style   of   its    author   who  and   pens    mercilessly   what   his 

discerning  gye  beholds  of  injustice  and  wrong-doing.) 

The  orgy  of  bloodshed  in  the  city  of  Herrin 
will  be  followed  by  a  real,  honest-to-goodness,  re- 
ligious revival. 

Evangelist  Howard  S.  Williams  has  struck  his 
tent  right  in  the  middle  of  the  city,  which  was 
wrecked  by  the  Ku  Klux  Klan,  to  save  the  sal- 
vage. 

We  know  Williams  well  and  have  watch' 
career  for  years. 


44  Persuading   God   Back  To   Herrin 


He  is  a  real  follower  of  the  Lowly  Xazarene 
and  preaches  the  gospel  as  he  finds  it  in  the  Good 
Book,  instead  of  the  K.  K.  K.  Manual  of  Arms. 

Evangelist  Williams  knows  that  the  religion  of 
Jesus  is  a  religion  of  love,  of  liberality  and  char- 
ity, of  magnanimity  and  forgiveness,  of  broad- 
mindedness  and  common  sense  and  forbearance, 
high  above  factions  and  feuds,  all  pervading  as 
the  atmosphere,  and  illimitable  in  its  immensity, 
like  the  universe,  itself. 

He  preaches  from  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
and  uses  the  Golden  Rule  as  his  text. 

He  believes  in  the  Lord's  Prayer  and  observes 
the  Ten  Commandments. 

You  can  imagine  what  P.  R.  Glotfelty,  the 
Methodist  preacher;  I.  E.  Lee,  the  Baptist  preach- 
er; B.  E.  Green,  the  total  immersionist  from 
Coal  Bank,  and  J.  E.  Story,  the  great  reformer 
and  moral  sky-pilot,  think  of  a  minister  who  ex- 
pounds a  religion,  and  clings  to  a  faith  like  that. 

They  know  that  Williams  is  going  to  put  a 
crimp  into  their  calculations. 

The  only  Protestant  preacher  in  Herrin  who  is 
sympathetic  with  Evangelist  Williams,  is  Rev. 
Meeker,  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  who  has 
kept  aloof  from  Ku  Klux  skull-duggery,  bullyragg- 
ing and  criminality. 

Rev.  Meeker  is  an  exponent  of  real  Christian- 
ity, real  religion,  real  humanity  and  has  the  same 
message  for  the  people  which  Williams  carries. 

He  is  first  a  good  man,  and.  therefore,  a  good 
preacher. 

He  loves  his  fellowman  and  preaches  the  gos- 
pel of  love  which  permeates  the  life  and  the 
morals  and  the  message  of  Jesus. 

The  beauty  of  it  is  that  the  fanatical  Ku  Klux 
preachers  will  no  more  be  able  to  keep  their  con- 
gregations from  flocking  to  the  tent  of  Williams, 


Persuading   God    Back  To    Herrin  45 

than  they  could  if  St.  Paul  came  back  and  visited 
Herrin  and  preached  the  gospel  of  our  Lord  un- 
der the  sheltering  roof  of  Williams'  tent. 

Evangelist  Williams  is  a  great  orator,  capable 
himself,  and  through  his  own  eloquence,  to  draw 
a  big  crowd,  but  besides  that  he  is  a  thoroughbred 
and  knows  the  game. 

He  is  utterly  without  fear. 

He  has  no  obligations  to  discharge,  except  to 
himself,  and  to  his  Divine  Master. 

He's  going  to  tell  some  very  unwelcome  truths 
in  Herrin  so  far  as  the  old  Ku  Klux  crowd  is  con- 
cerned. 

Christ  stood  for  peace  on  earth,  good-will  to- 
wards men — the  very  opposite  of  what  Kluxism 
represents. 

He  stood  for  humanity  and  mercy  and  kind- 
ness. 

Williams  tells  that  story. 

He  tells  it  in  simple,  but  blistering  and  wither- 
ing and  burning  words  when  guilty  consciences 
are  within  ear-shot  reach. 

He  does  not  beat  the  devil  around  the  bush. 

He  talks  straight  from  the  shoulder  and  calls 
a  spade  a  spade. 

He  doesn't  believe  that  the  badge  of  Christian- 
ity is  a  loaded  automatic  on  the  hip,  nor  the 
mission  of  good  Christians,  midnight  marauding, 
or  condemning,  hounding  and  persecuting  even 
sinners. 

"Render  unto  Caesar  what  is  Caesar's  and  un- 
to God  what  is  God's"  is  another  one  of  the  cor- 
nerstones of  religion  which  Evangelist  Williams 
preaches. 

He  doesn't  believe  in  holding  court  down  in 
the  Creek  Bottoms  under  the  disguise  of  masks, 
without  giving  the  accused  a  show  for  his  white 
alley,  and  following  this  travesty  on  justice  with 


46  Persuading   God    Back  To    Herrin 


tarring  and  featherings,  black-snake  whippings, 
raidings,  barn-burnings  and  house-burnings,  in 
short  incendiarism  and  murder. 

He  believes  that  the  government  in  our  repub- 
lic is  big  enough  and  strong  enough  to  make  and 
enforce  all  necessary  laws,  and  that  in  the  final 
analysis,  the  vital  issue  is  not  government  admin 
istered  by  the  self-elect  and  the  unco  good,  but 
for  self-government  itself— government  of,  by  and 
for  the  people;  government  by  the  majority;  self- 
government;  self-determination,  and  not  g^rern- 
ment  by  and  through  the  tyranny  and  despotism 
and  blood-thirst  and  usurpation  of  the  infamous 
and  damnable  and  brutal  Ku  Klux  Klan. 

Williams  has  a  good  organization,  and  his 
meetings  in  Herrin  are  bound  to  be  a  success,  in 
spite  of  the  hostility  and  the  covert  opposition  of 
the  Ku  Klux  Bible-pounder  gang. 

A  Herrin  Real  Estate  man  told  us,  yesterday, 
that  there  are  at  the  present  time,  one  hundred 
and  sixty-one  vacant  houses  in  the  city  of  Her- 
rin, and  that  he  himself  let  out  twp  of  them  yes- 
terday with  free  rent  to  be  able  to  hold  his  in- 
surance. 

Business  is  prostrate  and  stagnant,  and  indus 
try  ruined— a  blight  has  been  brought  on  the  com- 
munity as  if  through  the  visitation  of  pestilence— 
by  the  Ku  Klux  preachers  of  Herrin,  and  their 
gang  of  Socialistic  and  Bolshevistic  haters  and 
destructionists. 

It  takes  a  man  like  Evangelist  Williams  to  lift 
the  curse  and  to  put  some  real  hell-fire  under 
their  tails. 

We    sincerely    hope    that    he    will    succeed    in 
throwing  the   fear   of  God   into   the   craven   souls 
of  even  the  recreant  Ku  Klux  preachers. 
Herrin  will  come  back! 
It's  too  good  a   town,  and  even   the   Ku   Klux 


Persuading   God    Back  To    Herrin  47 

conspiracy   can't   hold   a    town   like   Herrin   down 
forever. 

Even  the  persecuted  and  hounded  and  much 
misrepresented  and  much  abused  Sheriff  George 
Galligan  has  surprised  them  all  by  coming  back, 
and  is  now  fully  re-established  at  the  Marion 
Jail  as  the  "High  Sheriff"  of  Williamson  County. 
He  was  made  the  goat  for  the  crimes  and  the  dis- 
turbance initiated  and  perpetrated  by  the  Ku  Klux 
gang. 

Galligan  had  done  all  he  could  to  save  Wil- 
liamson County  from  the  pestilential  effects  of 
the  orgy  of  Ku  Klux  extravagance  and  destruction 
and  disgrace. 

On  the  one  hand  the  money  of  the  county  was 
wasted  and  the  country  thrown  hopelessly  into 
debt,  and  the  rights  of  the  taxpayers  were  abso- 
lutely and  indecently  disregarded  and  ignored  by 
the  Ku  Klux  County  Board,  but  Galligan  was  de- 
nied funds  for  the  smallest  necessities  of  his  de- 
partment. 

When  he  left  the  jail  on  his  involuntary  exile, 
he  left  window  shades  and  curtains  which  he  had 
brought  from  his  own  home  at  Herrin  and  install 
ed  in  the  jail  to  save  expense  to  the  taxpayers  of 
of  Williamson  County. 

These  were  not  the  best  curtains  and  window 
shades,  but  they  were  good  enough  for  poor  peo- 
ple, from  the  loins  of  which  George  Galligan 
.springs. 

They  were  good  enough  for  George  Galligan  at 
his  home. 

They  ought  to  have  been  good  enougn  for 
poor,  old  bankrupt  Williamson  County. 

Simply  to  show  that  their  impecuniosity  and 
cheese-paring  with  Galligan  was  due  to  Ku  Klux 
hatred  of  Galligan  when  the  Klan  took  over  the 
jaiL  with  their  Klan  Board  of  Supervisors,  headed 


48  Persuading  God   Back  To   Herrin 


at  that  time  by  the  former  Cyclops  Sam  Stearns, 
after  Galligan's  exile,  it  was  immediately  decided 
to  doll  the  thing  up  as  it  was  not  good  enough  for 
the  Klan  officers  and  Klan  loafers. 

Mack  Garrison,  the  Assistant  Supervisor  un- 
der Stearns— the  supreme  tightwad  of  Williamson 
County— thought  that  the  jail  was  too  untidy. 

In  fact  the  whole  County  Klan  Board  decided 
to  buy  new  curtains  and  window  shades,  and  thus 
was  the  jail  redecorated. 

The  new  curtains  will  stay  in  the  jail,  as  Sher- 
iff Galligan  came  in  on  them  so  suddenly  that 
they  did  not  have  time  to  move  them. 

During  Galligan's  absence  the  he-nurse,  Camp- 
bell, turned  his  profession  to  official  scrub-woman 
of  the  jail.   . 

His  pay  was  allowed  him  by  the  County  Board, 
with  the  exception  of  the  price  of  a  pistol  which 
he  had  bought  and  never  paid  for,  and  for  which 
he  was  sued,  and  the  judgment  rendered  against 
him  turned  over  to  the  County  Board  and  the 
debt  deducted  from  his  salary. 

Campbell  spent  most  of  his  time  while  scrub- 
bing the  jail  looking  for  the  blood  of  Slim  Far- 
mer, who  the  Klan  said  had  been  murdered  by 
George  Galligan,  and  his  body  burned  in  the  jail 
furnace. 

In  order  to  get  something  on  Galligan  and  to 
frame  up  on  him,  and  to  get  a  chance  to  indict 
him  and  railroad  the  man  to  the  penitentiary,  the 
midnight  marauders  dug  up  graves  in  the  ceme- 
teries of  the  county,  looking  for  the  body  of  Slim 
Farmer. 

This  well-known  fact  can  easily  be  verified, 
for  Slim  Farmer  is  in  the  land  of  the  living,  halo 
and  hearty  and  on  the  job. 

While  all  this  hubbub  and  search  for  Farmer 
was  on,  the  latter  was  in  East  St.  Louis  with  his 


Persuading  God   Back  To   Herrin  49 


friends,  sipping  cold  steins  in  a  soft  drink  parlor, 
where  we  saw  him  time  and  again  when  he  was 
supposed  to  be  under  the  sod. 

This  search  for  Farmer,  while  he  was  miles 
away  from  Herrin,  giving  the  searchers  the  horse 
laugh,  is  typical  of  the  many  searches  that  John 
Ford,  Carl  Neilson,  Harold  Crain,  John  Smith, 
Charlie  Cargle,  Tommy  Thornton,  Jackie  Rowe 
and  S.  Glenn  Fowler  have  made  for  the  Shelton 
boys,  when  they  knew  full  well  that  they  were 
many  miles  away. 

None  of  this  crowd  ever  searched  for  them, 
while  they  were  in  Herrin  and  out  in  the  open. 

Tom  Kearns  is  ranting  around  trying  to  call 
the  County  Board  to  oust  Sheriff  Galligan. 

Tom  has  shot  his  rocket  and  is  only  playing 
with  the  stick. 

He  would  be  the  greatest  political  leader  in 
Williamson  County,  if  he  had  a  following. 

He  has  lost  his  following. 

He  is  like  the  unhorsed  king  in  Shakespeare's 
play,  who,  waving  his  arms,  shouted  frantically, 
"A  horse,  a  horse,  my  kingdom  for  a  horse!" 

Tom  would  look  better  perched  on  top  of  a 
mule,  right  now,  particularly  a  white  one. 

He  and  Boswell  are  having  as  weighty  con- 
ferences as  General  Grant  and  Sherman  and 
Thomas  and  Sheridan  used  to  have,  in  the  Civil 
War,  but  they  are  all  coming  to  nothing. 

The  best  laid  plans  of  mice  and  men  ga~g  aft 
aglee. 

Their  power  has  been  broken. 

Their  wad  is  shot. 

Their  pitcher  went  so  often  to  water  until  it 
got  broken. 

No  besheeted  and  behooded  Ku  Klux  gangsters 
are  at  their  listening  posts  in  Herrin,  anymore. 


50  Persuading   God   Back  To    Herrin 

Even  the  Ku  Klux  preachers  are  huddled  un- 
der cover. 

Shame-faced,  they  sneak  to  their  gospel-mills 
to  preach  their  dull  sermons. 

Their  singing  hasn't  got  the  same  ring  to  it. 

They  look  haggard,  and  their  ears  are  getting 
larger  and  longer  day  by  day. 

There  is  no  use  in  talking! 

The  Rev.  Williams'  evangelistic  campaign  is 
going  to  be  a  howling  success,  and  the  Ku  Klux 
sky-pilots  of  Herrin  will  know  it  before  he  gets 
through  with  them. 

He'll  tell  them  where  to  head  in  at. 

He'll  teach  them  a  trick  or  two. 

He'll  show  them  how  to  respect  the  rights  of 
their  fellowmen,  and  how  to  revere  and  worship 
God  without  making  nuisances  out  of  themselves. 

Williams  is  a  trump,  himself,  and  holds  a  win- 
ning hand! 

He  is  a  real  Christian  with  both  feet  on  the 
earth,  and  still  retaining  human  sympathies  and 
human  traits,  but  he's  not  green-eyed,  not  en- 
vious, not  jealous,  not  full  of  hate,  not  full  of 
scorn,  not  full  of  persecution,  mania,  and  not  full 
of  murder  lust. 


"TOWN  THAT  GOD  FORGOT"  HAS  A 
FAITHFUL  EDITOR 

(Scores  of  country  newspapers  editorialized  on  the  efforts  of  The, 
Herrin  News  to  try  the  old  time  religion  as  the  final  remedy  to  save 
Herrin  to  civilization..  This  editorial  is  from.  The  Patriot,  published 
at  Carrollton,  Illinois,  and  is  only  one  of  hundreds  of  country  news- 
papers from  Maine  to  California  that  made  similar  comment.) 

The  town  of  Herrin  has  been  given  a  great 
deal  of  publicity  of  the  sensational  sort.  As  Jong 
as  its  streets  were  echoing  the  tread  of  a  mob 
and  soaked  in  the  blood  of  mob  victims,  sensa- 
tional newspapers  cleared  their  first  pages  for 
the  story  of  Herrin's  shame. 


Persuading  God   Back  To   Herrin  51 


But  when  an  honest  effort  is  made  to  bring 
order  out  of  chaos,  the  sensational  press  has  lit- 
tle or  no  space  to  tell  the  story.  News  of  that 
sort  doesn't  appeal  to  them — too  tame.  If  told 
at  all,  it  is  tucked  away  in  some  obscure  corner 

The  letter  which  Editor  Hal  W.  Trovillion  of 
The  Herrin  News  addressed  to  Evangelist  Wil- 
liams recently  was  a  good  news  story,  but  we  fail- 
ed to  see  it  on  the  first  page  of  any  city  daily. 

Editor  Trovillion's  letter  was  an  S.  O.  S.  call 
for  the  evangelization  of  a  town  that,  to  quote  his 
own  words,  "many  people  think  God  has  forgot- 
ten." And  he  added  to  that  phrase,  "Sometimes 
I  am  nearly  persuaded  to  believe  there  is  a  bit  of 
truth  in  it." 

The  editor  goes  on  to  say  that  in  twenty  years 
he  has  never  known  a  time  when  Herrin  was 
more  athirst  for  an  old  time  religion.  "We  hav3 
endured  for  a  long  spell  a  spurious  brand  of  re- 
ligion that  teaches  that  God  is  hate  instead  of 
love.  The  'not'  has  been  dropped  from  the  Com- 
mandments, and  we  have  broken  them — broken 
nearly  all  of  them  over  and  over  again. 

"If  your  Bible  has  all  the  pages  in  it,"  he 
continues,  "if  all  the  Commandments  are  there 
intact,  if  Paul's  great  essay  on  love  is  there,  if 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  there,  and  you  preach 
these  things,  come  on  to  Herrin  posthaste,  for 
here  you  are  needed,  indeed  more  than  any  mis- 
sionary ever  was  needed  in  Abyssinia,  more  than 
Livingstone  was  needed  in  darkest  Africa." 

With  that  letter  Editor  Trovillion  enclosed  his 
personal  check  for  $50  and  promised  further  fi- 
nancial assistance  as  well  as  the  support  of  his 
paper,  if  the  evangelist  would  make  the  effort  to 
convince  Herrin  that  there  is  a  God  of  love,  and 
not  of  hate. 


52  Persuading  God   Back  To   Herrin 

Even  the  town  which  God  has  forgotten  is  not 
forsaken  by  the  editor  of  the  home  newspaper. 


STIRRING  HERRIN 

(Daily  Freeman- Journal,  Webster  City,  Iowa) 

There  is  a  series  of  revival  meetings  being  car- 
ried on  in  Herrin,  111.,  by  Rev.  Howard  S.  Wil- 
liams, who  is  meeting  with  wonderful  success. 
Perhaps  the  conquest  now  being  made  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord  will  prove  more  effective  than 
any  heretofore  carried  on  in  the  name  of  the  law. 
The  power  of  old  time  religion  is  still  strong  and 
when  the  right  man  presents  it  in  the  right  way 
and  at  the  right  time  results  are  usually  satisfac- 
tory. 

A  short  time  ago  the  editor  of  The  Herrin 
News  wrote  Evangelist  Williams,  urging  him  to 
come  to  Herrin  and  open  a  campaign  against  vice, 
insisting  that  the  religion  of  our  fathers  was  the 
only   thing  that  could  redeem  the  wicked  town. 

No  evangelist  guided  by  the  right  spirit  could 
turn  down  such  an  appeal  as  that.  Rev.  Wil- 
liams responded  and  is  now  in  the  midst  of  a 
campaign  of  the  revival  of  religion  in  Herrin,  the 
kind  our  grandfathers  believed  in  and  preached 
and  the  kind  that  always  make  men  better  if  they 
listen  and  heed.  When  they  used  to  sing  in  the 
little  brown  church  in  the  vale  that  "The  Old 
Time  Religion  is  Good  Enough  for  Me"  they 
meant  it,  and  Rev.  Williams  seems  to  have  gotten 
hold  of  the  hearts  of  the  people  of  Herrin,  and 
the  old  time  gospel  presented  in  the  old  time 
way  seems  to  be  doing  the  work  in  the  old  time 
fashion.     A  recent  Herrin  dispatch  says: 

Herrin  put  another  foot  forward  in  her  peace 
movement  today  when  the  5,000  who  filled  Rev. 
Williams'  revival  tabernacle  last  night  came  for- 


Persuading   God    Back  To    Herrin  53 


ward  and  extended  their  hand  of  friendship  to 
Sheriff  Geo.  Galligan. 

Galligan,  hitherto  a  bitter  anti-klansman  and 
the  center  of  klan  and  anti-klan  strife,  was  pres- 
ent with  his  deputies  and  other  county  officers, 
the  occasion  being  official  night. 

Tears  stood  in  the  sheriff's  eyes  as  friends  and 
foes  alike  all  extended  to  him  their  hands  in  fel- 
lowship. 

The  evangelist,  Howard  S.  Williams,  of  Hat- 
tiesburg,  Miss.,  is  being  credited  as  the  "man  who 
is  saving  Herrin."  His  meeting  will  continue  for 
two  weeks. 

That  is  very  encouraging  and  reassuring.  The 
love  of  Jesus  Christ  will  bring  Herrin  out  of  her 
degradation  if  the  people  will  only  welcome  the 
word  and  practice  the  precepts  of  the  greatest 
teacher  in  all  the  history  of  the  world. 


THE  TORONTO   (CANADA)   GLOBE 

(Issue  July  18,  1925) 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  transformations  of 
a  community  that  has  taken  place  in  recent  years 
through  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  is  that  which 
has  been  reported  from  the  town  of  Herrin,  Illi- 
nois. For  some  18  months  Herrin  had  the  un- 
enviable notoriety  of  being,  perhaps,  the  worst 
place  on  the  American  Continent,  where  gunfights 
and  murders  were  the  common  order  of  the  day. 
Now  all  has  been  changed  through  the  simple 
preaching  of  the  Cross  of  Christ  by  Evangelist 
Howard  S.  Williams.  In  an  article,  "Persuading 
God  Back  to  Herrin,"  The  Herrin  News  tells 
the  story  of  the  transformation  that  has  come 
over  the  community.  Through  the  preaching  of 
Williams  some  700  were  converted. 


54  Persuading   God   Back  To   Herrin 

RELIGION  AND  ADVERTISING 

(Chicago   Herald-Examiner) 

Herrin,  the  shootingest  town  in  the  United 
States;  Herrin,  which  made  its  county  famous 
as  "Bloody  Williamson,"  has  just  gone  through 
a  religious  revival.  A  little  minister  from  Mis 
sippi  has  concluded  a  seven-weeks  campaign  for 
souls,  with  meetings  attended  by  more  than  160,- 
000  people,  and  in  which  some  400  are  announced 
as  having  hit  the  trail  to  conviction  of  sin 
to  repentance. 

During  the  revival  practically  every  place  of 
business  in  Herrin  closed  from  11:30  to  noon  for 
the  mid-day  prayer-meetings,  many  of  which 
■  held  in  the  stores.  A  poster  advertising  the 
meetings  hung  over  the  spot  where  S.  Glenn 
Young  and  Deputy  Sheriff  Thomas  shot  it  out. 
The  newspapers  of  Herrin  made  the  revival  first- 
page  stuff  every  day  for  six  weeks.  Every 
church  in  the  county,  except  one,  sent  its  minis- 
ters to  share  in  the  united  struggle  for  souls. 

"Modern  history",  says  The  Herrin  News  edi- 
torially, "does  not  reveal  a  community  so  com 
pletely  God-forsaken  as  was  Herrin  and  William- 
son County"  before  the  revival.  "If  God  was  any- 
where about  when  we  were  grabbing  at  one  an- 
other's throats  a  few  months  ago,  we  don't  know 
where  He  was  hiding." 

But  the  revival,  says  The  News,  has  change j 
all  that.  "History  will  characterize  the  leader  ol 
the  revival  as  'The  man  who  persuaded  God  back 
to  Herrin'." 

'What  the  permanent  results  of  the  revival 
will  be,  who  can  say?  The  Herrin  News,  again, 
sums  it  up  when  it  says,  "The  problem  is  ours 
again  to  preserve  ourselves."  Into  the  realm  of 
prophecy  we  do  not  here  venture.     Herrin  has  a 


Persuading   God   Back  To    Herrin  55 

job  on  its  hands,  as  Chicago  has,  but  it  is  Her- 
rin's  job,  not  Chicago's. 

The  interesting  thing,  to  the  on-looker,  is  the 
relation  of  religious  zeal  to  advertising.  The  in 
formation  about  the  Herrin  revival  has  been  sent 
out  under  the  auspices  of  the  business  men  of 
Herrin.  Compare  that  fact  with  the  other,  that 
the  Business  Men's  Association  of  Dayton,  Tenn  , 
raised  $5,000  to  advertise  the  Scopes  trial,  now 
going  on  in  that  hitherto  unnoticed  burg. 

The  note  of  the  Scopes  trial  is  intolerance. 
The  Tennessee  law  declares,  in  effect,  "The  chil- 
dren of  this  state  may  not  listen  to  any  doctrine 
in  which  the  majority  of  the  Legislature  does  not 
believe."  The  note  of  the  Herrin  revival  was  tol- 
erance. "God  is  love.  Love  one  another.  For- 
give and  forget.  Believe,  all  of  you,  in  the  father- 
hood of  God  and  the  brotherhood  of  man."  Says 
the  evangelist,  "Herrin's  sin  was  the  sin  of  hate. 
I  preached  only  the  religion  of  love." 

Here  you  have  two  opposing  views  of  religion; 
but  both,  as  we  say,  widely  advertised.  Emotion 
is  energy.  Emotion  in  religion  is  energy  that  is 
good  for  business.  The  question  both  of  the  per- 
manence of  the  emotion  and  of  its  ultimate  in 
fluence  for  good  or  bad  is,  as  we  have  just  noted, 
individual.  But,  if  religion  is  to  be  used  for  ad 
vertising  purposes,  we  must  say  we  prefer  ths 
Herrin  brand  of  love  to  the  Dayton  brand  of  in- 
tolerance. 


THE  REFORMATION  OF  HERRIN 

(The  Literary  Digest,  July  25,  1925) 
"Bloody"  Herrin  has  laid  away  its  smoking  re- 
volvers and  reformed.  The  fact  has  not  been  as 
widely  heralded  as  were  Herrin's  private  killings, 
feuds,  riots  and  massacres,  which  some  months 
ago  made  the  seat  of  Williamson  County  notorious 


56  Persuading   God   Back  To    Herrin 


throughout  the  world.  The  first  news  of  the  re- 
formation was  conveyed  in  an  Associated  Press 
dispatch,  which  tells  us  that  Herrin  has  abandon- 
ed old  ways  for  new  and  is  building  peace  on  the 
foundation  of  the  Golden  Rule.  It  is  worthy  of 
note  that  it  is  a  former  Associated  Press  corres- 
pondent who  was  the  human  agent  in  the  trans- 
formation. Members  of  a  legislative  committee 
visiting  the  Illinois  city  found,  we  are  told,  the 
population  "happy  and  peaceable,  the  old  grudges 
forgotten  and  the  old  hatreds  buried  in  a  spirit 
of  recognition  engendered  in  daily  noonday 
prayer-meetings  in  the  city's  largest  down-town 
theater."  The  committee  arrived  shortly  before 
noon,  and  found  every  store  closed.  In  many 
shop  windows  was  displayed  this  sign:  "This 
place  closes  daily  for  the  men's  noonday  prayer- 
meeting.  Annex  Theater,  11:30  to  12  noon." 
Says  the  dispatch  further: 

Few  persons  were  seen  on  the  streets  and 
business  was  at  a  standstill  while  proprietors, 
clerks  and  salespeople  attended  the  services. 

"At  the  meeting  the  legislators  found  men  who 
could  pray  only  in  a  foreign  tongue  standing 
shoulder  to  shoulder  with  the  townsfolk  who  once 
were  armed  against  them.  The  legislators  are 
convinced  the  city  has  returned  to  the  ways  of 
peace,  that  the  Golden  Rule  has  replaced  the  blue 
steel  pistol  as  the  arbiter  of  honor." 

The  credit  for  this  admittedly  remarkable 
reformation  is  given  to  Howard  S.  Williams,  a 
former  Associated  Press  correspondent  and  editor 
of  a  small  newspaper  in  Mississippi.  He  was 
converted  by  Gipsy  Smith,  Jr.,  two  and  a  half 
years  ago.  He  has  just  finished  putting  Herriu 
back  on  its  feet,  and,  according  to  Wilbur  Forrest, 
staff  correspondent  of  the  New  York  Herald 
Tribune,  took  with  him  on  his   return  home  the 


Persuading  God   Back  To   Herrin  57 


thanks  of  the  leading  citizens  of  the  town,  "who 
credit  his  rough-and-ready  theology  with  doing 
the  hitherto  impossible  in  bringing  men  who  a 
short  time  ago  were  carrying  guns  and  threaten- 
ing to  take  life,  into  friendly  handshakes,  with  a 
bond  of  Christianity  between  them.,,  Mr.  Wil- 
liams is,  we  are  told,  a  lay  evangelist  who 
preaches  the  old-time  religion.  His  converts  are 
said  to  include  Protestants  and  Catholics,  and 
among  his  most  hearty  supporters  were  Jews. 
Gunmen,  bootleggers  and  others  of  the  ilk  gener- 
ally known  as  "bad  men"  were  persuaded  to  lay 
down  their  arms,  and  when  Mr.  Williams  asked 
them  to  recognize  the  sheriff  as  the  symbol  of  law 
and  order  in  Williamson  County,  several  hundred 
of  them  who  had  sworn  to  "get"  him  rushed  over 
and  shook  the  sheriff's  hands. 

And  Herrin's  leading  citizens  believe  that  he 
succeeded.  According  to  Mr.  Forrest  they  believe 
that  "the  hideous  nightmare  of  massacres,  fac- 
tional gun-fighting  between  union  and  non-union 
forces,  elements  of  wet  and  dry,  Ku  Klux  ana 
anti-Ku  Klux,  since  1923,  is  forgotten  history." 
The  correspondent  writes: 

"His  fame  has  spread  until  St.  Louis  has  beck- 
oned him  to  save  souls  in  that  city  in  a  great 
tabernacle  built  and  supported  by  more  than  a 
hundred  churches.  But  saving  Herrin  from  her- 
self with  a  two-fisted  doctrine  of  love  one  another 
will  probably  stand  as  the  Mississippi  lay  evange- 
list's greatest  feat.  Anyway,  without  mentioning 
the  term  Ku  Klux  Klan  once  in  his  noonday  meet- 
ings and  night  revivals,  he  has  succeeded  in  put- 
ting the  Herrin  Kluckers  out  of  business.  A  few 
days  ago  Herrin's  Klan  newspaper  filed  a  petition 
in  bankruptcy  and  converted  members  of  the  Klan 
now  admit  that  locally  it  is  virtually  through. 
"Figuratively,  he   has  taken   the  guns   out  of 


58  Persuading   God   Back  To    Herrin 

Herrin's  hip-pockets  and  replaced  them  with  clean 
handkerchiefs.  He  has  put  a  kindly  smile  on  the 
faces  of  people  who  have  worn  grouchy  frowns 
for  years.  Such  is  the  result  that  the  outside  ob- 
server sees  out  of  Williams'  campaign.  Perhaps 
any  other  evangelist  might  have  done  it,  but  most 
of  Herrin's  12,000  citizens  are  ready  to  erect  a 
monument  to  Williams  and  give  him  all  the 
credit." 

Of  these  is  the  editor  of  The  Herrin  News. 
Hal  W.  Trovillion  who  writes  in  his  paper  that 
history  will  characterize  the  Mississippi  evange- 
list as  ''the  man  who  persuaded  God  back  to  Her- 
rin." We  read  that  the  cooperation — all  the 
churches  save  one  cooperated  in  the  reform  move- 
ment— proves  that  all  the  citizens  are  anxious  to 
usher  in  an  era  of  good  feeling.  Touching  on  the 
late  situation,  Mr.  Trovillion  writes: 

"It  was  not  only  a  breakdown  of  the  law  that 
many  still  contend  caused  it  all,  it  was  partly  a 
religious  collapse  of  the  entire  community.  But 
we  are  now  set  well  back  on  the  road,  the  church 
houses  are  rechristened  once  more  as  the  House 
of  God,  and  we  hope  they  will  be  used  as  such, 
and  that  all  will  stay  put  right.  Williams  has 
handed  us  an  accurate  compass,  and  believing  in 
the  brotherhood  of  man,  the  fatherhood  of  God 
and  with  that  compass  pointed  to  the  star  of 
Bethlehem  and  with  our  eyes  on  a  cross  that  pro- 
claims a  Jesus,  we  may  hope  for  a  bon  voyage 
back  to  that  far-distant  land  where  still  dwell  the 
sane  and  sensible  people  of  modern  civilization. * 


A  CORRESPONDENCE 

(William  Mitchell,  a  retired  educator,  at  one  time  editor  of  tne 
Tacoma,  (Wash.)  Ledger,  now  residing  at  Guelph,  Ontario,  Canada, 
read  in  The  New  York  Herald  Tribune  which  reproduced  in  full  the 
editorial  that  recently  appeared  in  The  Herrin  News  summing  up  the 
Williams'    evangelistic    meetings    in    Herrin,    and   writes    the   following 


Persuading   God    Back  To    Herrin  59 


timely  comment  on  The  B 
the  issue  of  Ai 

The  remarkable  reformation  which  has  just 
swept  the  city  of  Herrin  as  the  result  of  the  six 
weeks  campaign  of  Evangelist  Williams  is  one 
more  proof  that  the  Gospel  of  Christ  is  still  the 
power  of  God  unto  Salvation  and  not  merely  of 
the  individual  soul,  but  of  whole  communities. 
We  are  apt  to  think  of  the  gospel  as '  a  purely 
spiritual  message  for  the  soul.  Assuredly  it  is 
that;  such  a  message  as  the  soul  had  never  listen- 
ed to  before;,  and  which,  through  ages,  has 
brought  to  millions  of  hearts  priceless  treasures 
of  strength  and  comfort.  But  the  extraordinary 
thing  is  that  our  modern  preachers,  with  the  New 
Testament  before  them,  have  missed  the  other 
side  of  the  matter;  have  missed  the  significance 
of  the  primitive  church  as  a  social  movement. 

The  early  disciples  believed  not  only  in  the 
regeneration  of  the  individual  soul,  but  in  the  re- 
generation of  the  whole  world-system.  Religion 
to  them — and  it  was  the  old-time  religion — held  as 
one  of  its  prime  factors,  a  social  revolutionary 
element.  It  meant  a  reversal  of  the  old  time 
evils,  or  reversal  of  the  way  in  which  men  should 
live  and  work  with  each  other.  That  the  golden 
law  of  love  must  take  the  place  of  the  iaw  of 
hatred  and  strife  to  carry  on  the  world  and  bind 
the  children  of  men  together  in  the  bonds  of 
brotherhood. 

It  is  the  habit  of  the  skeptical  mind  to  doubt 
when  it  hears  of  whole  communities  coming  un- 
der the  power  and  influence  of  the  gospel. 
Charles  Darwin,  the  great  scientist,  is  surely  an 
impartial  witness.  He  says  in  his  "Journal  of 
Researches"  Chap.  XVIII,  that  on  his  first  visit 
to  the  Island  of  Tahiti  he  found  an  awful  con- 
dition  of  things.     "Human   Sacrifices,   the   power" 


60  Persuading   God   Back  To   Herrin 

of  an  idolatrous  priesthood,  a  system  of  profligacy 
unparalled  in  any  other  part  of  the  world,  in- 
fanticide, bloody  wars,  where  the  conquerors  spar- 
ed neither  women  nor  children."  When  twenty 
years  later  he  visited  Tahiti  he  says  he  found 
"That  all  these  things  have  been  abolished,  and 
that  dishonesty,  intemperance  and  licentiousness 
have  been  greatly  reduced  by  the  introduction  of 
Christianity." 

When   people   talk   about   "The   Old   Time   Re- 
ligon,"  unless  they  mean  the  Religion  that  Christ 
taught,  it  is  a  misnomer.     It  is  taking  the  bogus 
goods    and    putting    the    genuine    trade-mark    on 
them.     It  is  not  old  enough.     We  are  all  familiar 
with  the  song,  usually  pealed  out  in  lusty  tones: 
''Give  me  the  old-time  religion, 
It's  good  enough  for  me! 
It  was  good  enough  for  Moses, 
It  was  good  enough  for  father, 
It  was  good  enough  for  mother, 
And  it's  good  enough  for  me!" 
The    person   who    sings    that    song    is    usually 
thinking  of  the  religion  that  was  familiar  to  him 
as  a  boy  and  which  ten  to  one  was  the  religion  of 
the  sect  he  was  brought  up  in.     And  which  very 
likely  has  very  little  resemblance  to  the  religion 
of  the  Master. 

In  the  great  Protestant  Reformation,  Erasmus 
said,  "Back  to  Christ";  Luther  said,  "Back  to  St. 
Paul."  Had  Erasmus  possessed  Luther's  courage, 
his  self-regardlessness  and  his  strong  sense  of  the 
divine  imperative,  he  might  have  led  a  greater  re- 
formation, but  he  shrank  from  such  a  task  and  left 
the  field  to  the  other.  To  this  we  owe  the  sor- 
rowful fact  that  Lutheranism,  instead  of  being  the 
symbol  of  a  great  social  regeneration,  became  a 
mere  religious  sect,  hard  and  fact. 

This   thing    of   manicuring    the    morals   of   the 


Persuading  God   Back  To   Herrin  61 


people  is  a  dismal  failure.  You  may  prune  and 
poultice  the  cancer,  but  the  roots  are  still  there. 
Christ  was  right  of  course.  "Except  a  man  be 
born  from  above",  in  a  larger  and  broader  sense 
than  those  words  are  usually  understood.  Instead 
of  taking  the  Kingdom  of  God  in  the  sense  of  a 
life  in  Heaven  above,  we  ought  to  take  it,  as 
Christ  meant  it,  in  the  sense  of  a  reign  of  Saints, 
a  renovated  and  perfected  human  society  on 
earth,  the  ideal  society  of  the  future.  Humanity 
cannot  reach  its  ideal  while  it  lacks  this.  "Ex- 
cept a  man  be  born  from  above,  he  cannot  have 
part  in  the  society  of  the  future." 

Father  Taylor,  the  famous  Boston  Sailor 
Preacher  was  right.  Here  is  a  passage  from  one 
of  his  sermons,  in  a  style  that  nobody  but  a  sailor 
could  understand,  a  style,  however,  that  every 
sailor  could  comprehend: 

"You  are  dead  in  trespass  and  sins,  and  buried 
too,  down  in  the  lower  hold  amongst  the  ballast, 
and  you  can't  get  out,  for  there  is  a  ton  of  sin  on 
the  main  hatch.  You  shin  up  the  stanchions  and 
try  to  get  it  open,  but  you  can't.  You  rig  a  pur- 
chase. You  get  your  handspikes,  capstan  bars 
and  watch  tackles,  but  they  are  no  good.  You 
can't  start  it.  Then  you  begin  to  sing  out  for 
help.  You  hail  all  the  saints  you  think  are  on 
deck,  but  they  can't  help  you.  At  last  you  hail 
Jesus  Christ.  He  comes  straight  along.  All  He 
wanted  was  to  be  asked.  He  just  claps  His 
shoulder  to  that  ton  of  sin,  and  off  it  rolls,  and 
then  he  says  'Shipmates  come  out!'  well,  if  you 
don't  come  out,  its  all  your  own  fault." 

Let  us  remember  too  to  give  honor  to  whom 
honor  is  due.  In  much  of  the  preaching  today 
this  great  truth  is  ignored.  The  phrase  "Persuad- 
ing God  back  to  Herrin"  is  eminently  appropriate 
For  the  source  and  fountainhead  of  the  blessings 


62  Persuading  God   Back  To   Herrin 

of  the  Christian  religion  is  the  heart  of  God.  God 
so  loved  the  world  that  He  sent  Jesus.  Jesus 
said  "I  did  not  come  of  My  own  accord,  I  wa3 
sent  These  doctrines  that  I  am  proclaiming  to 
you  are  not  Mine,  they  are  the  doctrines  of  Him 
who  sent  Me."  After  all,  true  religion  is  the  life 
of  God  in  the  soul  of  man.  If  this  great  and  con- 
straining truth  finds  a  positive  lodgement  in  the 
hearts  of  the  people  of  Herrin  the  future  happi- 
ness and  prosperity  of  the  city  are  assured. 


